A  Study  in  Integrity 


SRSStSi 


A.LONZO    ROTHSCHILD 


EXLIBDIS 

WILLIAM-ACAKD 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ftp  SUoiua  SotI)GicI)tlU 

PUBLISHED  BY 

HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


"  HONEST    ABE."     A    Study   in    Integrity    based 
on  the  Early  Life  of  Abraham   Lincoln. 

LINCOLN,    MASTER   OP    MEN.     Illustrated. 


"HONEST   ABE" 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

From  a  woodcut  by  T.  Johnson  after  a  daguerreotype  owned  by 
Mr.  Robert  T.  Lincoln 


44 


HONEST  ABE 

A  STUDY  IN  INTEGRITY 

BASED  ON  THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


BY 


ALONZO  ROTHSCHILD 

AUTHOR  OF  "  LINCOLN,  MASTER  OF  MEN  " 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
1917 


COPYRIGHT,   1917,  BY  META  ROTHSCHILD 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  September  1917 


IN  MEMORY 

OF 

" DEAREST  " 

KATHERINE  ROTHSCHILD 

TO  WHOM  THE  AUTHOR 

OWES  NOT  LESS  THAN 

LINCOLN  OWED  HIS 

"ANGEL  MOTHER" 


A 

-i. 


THIS    BOOK  IS 

AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 


CONTENTS 

I.  PINCHING  TIMES I 

IL  TRUTH  IN  LAW 41 

III.  PROFESSIONAL  ETHICS 79 

IV.  DOLLARS  AND  CENTS 130 

V.  HONESTY  IN  POLITICS 195 

ALONZO  ROTHSCHILD 283 

Memoir  by  John  'Rothschild 

A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  CITED 307 

NOTES 321 

INDEX 361 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN Frontispiece 

From  a  woodcut  by  T.  Johnson  in  the  Century  Magazine 
for  February,  1897,  after  a  daguerreotype  owned  by  Mr. 
Robert  T.  Lincoln.  It  is  not  known  when  or  where  the 
daguerreotype  was  taken,  but  it  seems  probable  that  it  was 
made  either  at  St.  Louis  or  at  Washington  when  Lincoln 
was  in  Congress,  December,  1847, -March,  1849 

ALONZO  ROTHSCHILD 285 

From  a  photograph  by  Marceau,  Boston 


"HONEST  ABE" 


CHAPTER  I 

PINCHING   TIMES 

HE  who  seeks  to  understand  the  character  and 
achievement  of  Abraham  Lincoln  must  begin 
with  a  study  of  the  man's  honesty.  At  the  base  of 
his  nature,  in  the  tap-root  and  very  fiber  of  his 
being,  pulsed  a  fidelity  to  truth,  whether  of  thought 
or  of  deed,  peculiar  to  itself.  So  thoroughgoing  was 
this  characteristic  that  it  seems  to  have  begun  in 
him  where  in  other  men  it  generally  leaves  off.  Poli- 
ticians without  number  have  yielded  a  work-a-day 
obedience  to  the  rules  of  honor,  but  there  is  record 
of  no  other  public  leader  in  recent  times  who,  among 
the  vicissitudes  of  a  trying  career,  has  endeavored 
to  balance  actions  and  principles  with  such  pains- 
taking nicety.  To  trace  these  efforts  from  Lincoln's 
early  years  is  to  pass  with  him,  pace  for  pace,  over 
part  of  the  road  that  led  to  distinction.  As  we  go 
we  shall  have  to  take  account  of  happenings,  little 
as  well  as  big;  for  every  man  is  the  sum  of  all  his 
parts,  and  in  no  other  way  may  we  hope  to  compre- 
hend how  the  esteem  that  began  with  a  few  rustic 
neighbors  grew  until  it  filled  the  heart  of  a  nation. 

To  what  extent,  if  any,  Lincoln  inherited  his  up- 
rightness of  mind  from  remote  ancestors  will  prob- 


2  HONEST    ABE 

ably  never  be  known.  The  bare  lines  of  the  genea- 
logical chart  afford  no  clues  to  the  characters  of  the 
men  and  women  whose  names  appear  there.  If  any 
of  the  threads  spun  out  of  their  several  lives  met 
and  twined  in  the  broad  strand  of  blue  that  enriched 
his,  there  is  no  way  of  identifying  the  spinners.  Less 
obscure,  though  perhaps  of  only  passing  interest,  is 
what  may  be  gleaned  under  this  head  about  two 
of  Lincoln's  nearer  relations.  His  father's  brothers, 
Mordecai  and  Josiah,  appear  to  have  enjoyed  gen- 
eral respect  on  account  of  their  probity.  "They 
were  excellent  men,"  said  one  who  claimed  to  know 
them  intimately,  "plain,  moderately  educated,  can- 
did in  their  manners  and  intercourse,  and  looked 
upon  as  honorable  as  any  men  I  have  ever  heard 
of."  l  Their  younger  brother  Thomas,  however, 
cannot  be  so  readily  portrayed.  He  has,  like  his 
illustrious  son,  been,  in  turn,  depreciated  and  ideal- 
ized to  such  a  degree  that  the  inquirer,  who  would 
reach  safe  conclusions  in  respect  to  him,  must  tread 
warily  through  a  maze  of  contradictions. 

Rejecting  the  praise  as  well  as  the  blame  of  hear- 
say historians,  and  following  the  testimony  of  those 
only  who  knew  the  man,  we  learn  from  one  that  he 
was  "honest";  from  another  that  he  "was  regarded 
as  a  very  honest  man";  and  still  another  found  him 
"always  truthful  —  conscientious."  2  To  these  trib- 
utes must  be  added  what  one  who  was  doubly  con- 
nected with  Thomas  Lincoln  had  to  say  about 
him:  — 

"I'm  just  tired  of  hearing  Grandfather  Lincoln 
abused,"  said  Mrs.  Dowling,  the  daughter  of  Dennis 


PINCHING    TIMES  3 

Hanks  and  Matilda  Johnson,  speaking  to  an  atten- 
tive listener,  not  many  years  ago.  "  Everybody  runs 
him  down." 

Then,  going  on  to  free  her  mind  woman-fashion, 
she  continued :  — 

"Uncle  Abe  got  his  honesty,  and  his  clear  notions 
of  living,  and  his  kind  heart  from  his  father.  Maybe 
the  Hanks  family  was  smarter,  but  some  of  them 
could  n't  hold  a  candle  to  Grandfather  Lincoln 
when  it  came  to  morals.  I've  heard  Grandfather 
Lincoln  say,  many  a  time,  that  he  was  kind  and  lov- 
ing, and  kept  his  word,  and  always  paid  his  way, 
and  never  turned  a  dog  from  his  door."  3 

These  qualities,  so  admirable  in  Thomas,  were  not 
lacking,  it  should  be  mentioned,  in  that  particular 
member  of  "the  Hanks  family,"  his  cousin  Nancy, 
with  whom  he  mated.4  She  is  said  to  have  brought 
to  the  rude  Kentucky  cabin,  in  which  they  began 
their  married  life,  a  sweetness  of  spirit  and  a  firm- 
ness of  character  that  nicely  supplemented  his 
rugged  integrity.  Yet  here  again  traditions  are 
more  plentiful  than  facts,  and  the  repute  of  the 
little  family,  in  those  early  days,  so  far  as  it  affords 
a  point  of  departure  for  the  study  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's straightforwardness,  rests,  in  a  manner,  on 
the  word  of  one  neighbor,  —  a  man  of  standing, 
however,  —  according  to  whom  "they  were  poor," 
but  "they  were  true."  5 

The  poverty  of  the  frontier,  it  has  been  said,  is  no 
poverty;  but  the  Lincolns  were  poor  almost  to  a 
proverb.  Their  condition  appears  to  have  been  ex- 
treme, even  for  the  primitive  Kentucky  settlement 


4  HONEST    ABE 

at  Elizabethtown  where  they  made  their  first  home. 
The  young  husband  was  a  carpenter  by  trade,  but 
his  new  neighbors,  with  the  self-reliance  of  pioneers, 
managed  to  do  for  themselves  most  of  the  work 
wherewith  he  had  hoped  to  support  his  family.  Its 
needs  grew  with  the  birth  of  a  little  daughter,  but 
not  its  resources,  which  he  presently  sought  to  eke 
out  by  farming.  The  hut  in  Elizabethtown  was 
abandoned  for  another  hut  and  a  piece  of  tillable 
land  that  Thomas  had  bought,  —  presumably  on 
credit,  —  about  fourteen  miles  away,  near  the  Big 
South  Fork  of  Nolin  Creek.6  There,  in  the  following 
winter,  was  born  the  boy  who  became  known  to 
fame  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  must  have  felt  at  an 
early  age  the  tooth  of  the  "stinted  living"  in  those 
"  pinching  times,"  to  which,  during  later  life,  he  once 
sadly  referred ;  for  his  father  did  not  prosper  with  the 
hoe,  any  more  than  he  had  with  the  hammer.  After 
a  few  unfruitful  years  on  Nolin  Creek,  Thomas  re- 
linquished the  place  for  a  better  farm,  in  the  Knob 
Creek  region,  about  fifteen  miles  distant,  acquired 
like  its  predecessor  on  easy  terms.  Yet  the  fortunes 
of  the  family  did  not  mend.  Its  luckless  head  "was 
always  lookin',"  as  Cousin  Dennis  said,  "fur  the 
land  o'  Canaan."  To  his  pioneer's  vision  the  There 
ever  seemed  fairer  than  the  Here.  So  removal  fol- 
lowed removal,  —  now  in  Kentucky,  then  into  In- 
diana, and  again  into  Illinois,  —  until,  to  borrow 
one  of  Abraham's  little  stories,  the  chickens,  if  there 
were  any,  might  have  lain  on  their  backs  and  crossed 
their  legs  to  be  tied,  whenever  they  saw  the  wagon 
sheets  brought  out.7 


PINCHING    TIMES  5 

Thomas  Lincoln's  futile  shifts  need  not  be  set 
forth  at  length  here,8  but  certain  aspects  of  his  ina- 
bility to  get  on  in  the  world  have  a  peculiar  signifi- 
cance. He  responded  with  ready  good  nature  to 
calls  upon  his  time  or  his  hospitality ;  and  though  he 
appears  to  have  understood  many  things,  he  never 
learned  how  to  turn  his  dealings  with  the  little 
world  around  him  to  his  own  account.  The  few 
business  ventures,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  en- 
gaged, reveal  how  woefully  he  was  lacking  in  what 
has  been  called  "money  sense."  A  typical  instance, 
related  by  his  son  many  years  after  the  event,  may 
have  suggested  to  the  narrator  that  there  were  at 
least  two  members  of  the  Lincoln  family  who  had 
each  a  blind  side  in  the  direction  of  the  almighty 
dollar.  Here  is  the  story  substantially  as  Abraham 
related  it :  — 

"Father  often  told  me  of  the  trick  that  was 
played  upon  him  by  a  'pair  of  sharpers.'  It  was  the 
year  before  we  moved  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana 
that  father  concluded  to  take  a  load  of  pork  down  to 
New  Orleans.  He  had  a  considerable  amount  of  his 
own,  and  he  bargained  with  the  relations  and  neigh- 
bors for  their  pork,  so  that  altogether  he  had  quite 
a  load.  He  took  the  pork  to  the  Ohio  River  on 
a  clumsily  constructed  flat-boat  of  his  own  make. 
Almost  as  soon  as  he  pushed  out  into  the  river  a 
couple  of  sleek  fellows  bargained  with  him  for  his 
cargo,  and  promised  to  meet  him  in  New  Orleans 
where  they  arranged  to  pay  him  the  price  agreed 
upon.  He  eagerly  accepted  the  offer,  transferred  the 
cargo  to  the  strangers,  and  drifted  down  the  river, 


6  HONEST    ABE 

his  head  filled  with  visions  of  wealth  and  delight. 
He  thought  that  he  was  going  to  accomplish  what  he 
had  set  out  to  do,  without  labor  or  inconvenience. 
Father  waited  about  New  Orleans  for  several  days, 
but  failed  to  meet  his  whilom  friends.  At  last  it 
dawned  upon  him  that  he  had  been  sold,  and  all  that 
he  could  do  was  to  come  back  home  and  face  the 
music." 9 

Consoling  himself  after  such  mishaps  with  the 
indolent  philosophy  of  "Luck  is  ag'in'  me,"  and 
"Whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth,"  Thomas 
would  return  to  his  sporadic  farming,  or  to  what  he 
liked  better  —  his  rod  and  his  gun.  For  there  is  a 
tradition  that  this  unthrifty  fellow  —  honest  and 
well-meaning  though  he  was  —  had  a  distaste  for 
manual  labor.  When  work  had  to  be  done  he  did  it, 
after  a  fashion,  nor  did  he  spare  the  boy  who  was 
growing  up  at  his  side;  but  further  than  that  he 
apparently  did  not  go.  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  father  ever  found,  along  their  limited 
horizon,  the  path  which  might  have  led  either  him 
or  his  son  to  business  success.  They  certainly  did  not 
enter  upon  it.  Yet  if  Thomas  Lincoln  failed  to  teach 
Abraham  how  to  put  money  in  their  purse,  let  it  be 
remembered,  to  his  lasting  credit,  that  he  did  show 
him  how  an  empty  sack  might  —  despite  a  time- 
honored  adage  to  the  contrary  —  stand  upright. 

Noteworthy  as  was  the  father's  influence  on  the 
boy's  character,  that  of  the  mother  appears  to  have 
been  of  deeper  consequence.  Lincoln's  earliest  recol- 
lections of  her,  as  he  recalled  in  later  years,  pictured 
his  sister  and  himself  seated  at  her  feet  eagerly  lis- 


PINCHING    TIMES  7 

tening  to  the  books  that  she  read  or  the  tales  that 
she  told.  The  poor  lady  succumbed  early  to  the 
hardships  of  the  Indiana  backwoods;  and  the  few 
facts  that  are  known  concerning  her  brief  life  set 
forth  but  a  meager  story.10  If  "the  world  knows 
nothing  of  its  greatest  men,"  may  this  not  be  so,  in  a 
measure,  because  it  knows  nothing  of  their  mothers? 
The  deficiency,  as  far  as  Nancy  Hanks  is  concerned, 
was  supplied,  for  all  time,  in  perhaps  the  most  pithy 
yet  comprehensive  tribute  that  a  distinguished  son 
ever  uttered  to  the  memory  of  a  parent.  Looking 
down  over  his  career  from  the  last  eminence,  and 
tracing  it  all  back  again  to  the  frail,  sweet-faced 
woman  whose  life  had  flickered  out  before  his  won- 
dering gaze,  in  the  cabin  home  of  his  boyhood,  Lin- 
coln once  said,  with  moist  eyes:  "All  that  I  am,  or 
hope  to  be,  I  owe  to  my  angel  mother."  u 

When  she  passed  on,  the  lad,  it  is  true,  was  not 
quite  eleven  years  old;  nevertheless  her  teachings, 
during  that  first  plastic  period,  had  evidently  left 
their  sterling  impress  in  his  nature. 

Nor  did  the  home  influence  for  right  living  stop 
there.  After  an  interval  of  about  a  year,  Thomas 
sought  another  mate.  Leaving  the  little  ones  to 
manage  the  household  on  Little  Pigeon  Creek  as 
best  they  might,  he  retraced  his  steps  to  Elizabeth- 
town  and  offered  himself  in  marriage  to  Mrs.  Sarah 
Bush  Johnston.  She  is  said  to  have  refused  him,  in 
their  younger  days,  for  Daniel  Johnston,  who,  by  a 
coincidence,  had  left  her  a  widow  with  as  many  chil- 
dren as  waited  for  her  visitor  at  home.12  On  this 
occasion  the  lady  listened  more  favorably  to  his 


8  HONEST    ABE 

proposal,  yet  she  pointed  out  an  obstacle,  saying: 
"Tommy  Lincoln,  I  have  no  objection  to  marrying 
you,  but  I  cannot  do  it  right  off,  for  I  owe  several 
little  debts  which  must  first  be  paid."  To  which  he 
replied:  "Give  me  a  list  of  your  debts." 

They  amounted  to  about  twelve  dollars  —  not  so 
mean  a  sum  in  those  days  of  small  things  as  present 
standards  might  indicate.  At  any  rate,  within  a  few 
hours  our  suitor  had  paid  them,  and  had  married  the 
fair  debtor.  The  settlement  of  these  little  accounts 
was,  in  a  way,  the  central  incident  of  their  short 
courtship.13  It  puts  one  in  mind  of  the  good  repute 
enjoyed  by  the  Lincolns,  from  the  beginning,  in 
Elizabethtown.  If  the  neighbor,  who  declared 
Thomas  and  his  first  wife  to  have  been  poor  but 
true,  had  seen  him  and  his  second  wife  set  out  for 
home  in  a  four-horse  wagon  loaded  with  her  wealth  of 
household  belongings,  —  to  say  nothing  of  the  three 
blooming  Johnston  children,  —  there  might  have 
been  some  hesitation  about  repeating  the  word 
"poor";  but  in  the  face  of  those  receipted  bills, 
there  would  probably  have  been  no  desire  to  modify 
the  word  "true."14 

Sally  Bush  was  a  worthy  successor  to  Nancy 
Hanks.  A  woman  of  strong  personality  and  high 
ideals,  this  stepmother  —  to  use  a  designation  that 
she  ennobled  — is  credited  by  not  a  few  writers  with 
exerting  the  larger  influence  in  the  moulding  of 
Abraham  Lincoln's  character.  They  have  gone  so 
far,  some  of  them,  as  to  assert  that  Lincoln  himself, 
recognizing  this  to  be  so,  had  her  in  mind  and  not 
her  predecessor,  when  he  uttered  that  grateful 


PINCHING    TIMES  9 

acknowledgment  to  his  "  angel  mother. ' ' 15  This  view 
is  hardly  sustained  by  the  language  of  the  tribute,  or 
by  the  facts;  yet  Abraham  apparently  missed  no 
opportunity  for  expressing  in  deeds,  as  well  as  in 
words,  what  —  to  use  his  own  phrases  —  he  owed 
the  "noble  woman "  who  had  been  "a  good  and  kind 
mother" 16  to  an  orphaned  boy. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  controversy  concerning  the 
two  women,  if  controversy  it  may  be  called,  is  fairly 
disposed  of  by  what  Mr.  Lincoln  told  one  of  his 
acquaintances,  Governor  William  Pickering,  who 
some  years  later  thus  restated  their  conversation. 
"Once  when  Lincoln  referred  to  the  fact  that  he 
owed  much  to  his  mother,  I  asked,  'Which  mother, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  your  own  or  your  stepmother?'  To 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  —  'Don't  ask  me  that 
question,  for  I  mean  both,  as  it  was  mother  all  my 
life,  except  that  desolate  period  between  the  time 
mother  died  and  father  brought  mother  into  the 
home  again.  Both  were  as  one  mother.  Hence  I 
simply  say,  mother.' "  17 

With  one  or  the  other  of  these  conscientious  wo- 
men at  his  side,  Abraham  Lincoln  reached  maturity. 
Almost  every  good  man  has  had  a  good  mother. 
Here  was  one  who  had  two.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  his  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  after  a 
few  minor  lapses,  became  developed  to  uncommon 
acuteness  at  an  early  age,  nor  should  it  be  accounted 
a  miracle  that  from  the  unsightly  stumpage  of  a 
frontier  clearing,  emerged  this  blossom  which  grew, 
with  time,  into  the  finest  flower  of  nineteenth-cen- 
tury honor. 


10  HONEST    ABE 

Lincoln  was  brought  up  on  the  breast  of  things. 
The  rugged  actualities  of  life  in  a  new  country, 
rather  than  the  literature  about  life,  entered  into 
his  training;  and  when  we  name  those  colleges  to 
which  the  world's  great  lights  have  severally  owed 
their  education,  this  man  must  be  credited  to  the 
most  venerable,  though  perhaps  least  honored, 
among  them  all,  —  the  academy  of  hard  knocks. 
Let  us  not  infer,  however,  that  the  back  settlements 
in  which  he  spent  his  youth  were  wholly  beyond  the 
field  of  letters.  Attending  "ABC  schools  by  lit- 
tles," as  the  autobiography  expresses  it,  and  learn- 
ing betimes  how  to  read,  the  lad  lost  no  opportunity 
to  borrow  or  acquire  the  few  books  within  his  reach. 
Under  the  stimulation  of  first  one  mother,  then  the 
other,  every  volume  that  he  could  lay  hold  of  for 
fifty  miles  around  was  eagerly  studied.  What  this 
shifting  library  comprised  will  doubtless  never  be 
fully  known.  It  is  said  to  have  included  —  besides 
certain  elementary  school-books 18  —  the  Bible,  Bun- 
yan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  ^Esop's  "Fables,"  the 
"Arabian  Nights,"  Defoe's  "Robinson  Crusoe," 
Weems's  "Life  of  Washington,"  Ramsay's  "Life  of 
Washington,"  a  history  of  the  United  States, 
Weems's  "Life  of  Marion,"  the  "Speeches  of  Henry 
Clay,"  with  which  was  probably  incorporated  a 
"Memoir"  of  the  statesman,  the  " Life  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,"  Riley's  "Narrative  of  the  Loss  of  the 
Brig  Commerce,"  a  few  of  Cooper's  "Leather 
Stocking  Tales,"  and  the  Revised  Laws  of  Indiana, 
with  which  were  bound,  besides  other  documents, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitu- 


PINCHING    TIMES  11 

tion  of  the  United  States.19  Some  of  these  works, 
if  not  all  of  them,  left  an  ethical  glow  in  the  boy's 
heart.  Thoughtfully  absorbing  the  light  that 
streamed  from  their  pages,  he  caught  glimpses  here 
and  there  of  a  kinship  that  linked  the  everyday 
doings  in  his  commonplace  world  with  the  ideals 
in  his  books. 

A  mishap  to  one  of  the  borrowed  volumes  put 
these  budding  ideas  of  rectitude  to  the  test.  While 
in  Abraham's  keeping,  a  "Life  of  Washington"20  that 
belonged  to  a  neighbor,  Josiah  Crawford  by  name, 
was  badly  soaked  one  night  during  a  rainstorm, 
which  beat  through  the  chinks  of  the  Little  Pigeon 
Creek  cabin.  Carrying  the  damaged  book  back  to  its 
owner,  the  boy  acknowledged  himself  answerable 
for  its  condition; — but  how  was  he  to  pay  the  seven- 
ty-five cents  which  Crawford  demanded  in  settle- 
ment? Money  was  as  scarce  as  literature  at  that 
time  with  young  Lincoln,  so  he  agreed  to  work  out 
the  claim  in  the  farmer's  corn-field.  "You  see,"  said 
Abraham,  relating  the  incident  to  a  friend,  "I  am 
tall  and  long-armed,  and  I  went  to  work  in  earnest. 
At  the  end  of  the  two  days  there  was  not  a  corn- 
blade  left  on  a  stalk  in  the  field.  I  wanted  to  pay  full 
damage  for  all  the  wetting  the  book  got,  and  I  made 
a  clean  sweep."21  This  ample  submission  to  the  laws 
of  mine  and  thine  was  not,  however,  so  graceful  as  it 
might  have  been.  Our  "long-armed  "  boy  appears  to 
have  been  still  far  removed  from  sainthood  in  those 
days;  and,  after  the  manner  of  boys,  he  nursed  a 
grudge  against  Crawford  for  his  unneighborly, 
though  perhaps  rightful,  treatment  of  the  accident. 


12  HONEST    ABE 

Having  satisfied  that  thrifty  person's  demands  with 
the  Scriptural  "good  measure,  pressed  down,  and 
shaken  together,  and  running  over,"  Abraham  — 
so  tradition  has  it  —  lampooned  the  man  whenever 
occasion  offered,  —  now  in  humorous  prose,  now 
in  doggerel  rhymes,  —  until  Josiah's  "blue  nose,"  as 
well  as  certain  other  unlovely  features,  became  the 
laughing-stock  of  the  neighborhood.  Indeed,  the 
gibes  ran  their  merry  course  —  if  we  may  believe 
one  veracious  chronicler  —  all  the  way  to  "the 
Wabash  and  the  Ohio."  22 

This  unseemly  persecution  of  Crawford,  on  the 
heels  of  an  honorable  settlement  with  him,  nar- 
rowly saved  the  youthful  Lincoln  from  occupying  a 
place  in  the  world's  gallery  of  premature  worthies 
beside  the  copper-plate  little  Washington  portrayed 
by  Parson  Weems.  Nevertheless,  that  myth-maker's 
model  boy,  who  could  not  tell  a  lie,  had  left  a  deep 
impression  in  the  mind  of  this  real  boy.  To  Abe's 
uncritical  faculties  the  biography  rang  true  in  every 
detail.  For  its  reverend  author,  with  all  his  faults, 
had  the  literary  merit  of  apparent  sincerity ;  and  his 
string  of  "curious  anecdotes,"  as  the  title-page 
called  them,  had  not  yet  been  worn  threadbare,  to 
the  verge  of  the  ridiculous,  by  derisive  repetition. 
Weems's  Washington,  boy  and  man,  became  Lin- 
coln's hero  —  a  cherished  ideal  which  he  never  con- 
sented to  modify,  even  after  he  had  outgrown  the 
story  of  the  cherry  tree  and  that  truthful  little 
hatchet-swinger. 

Emulating  the  great  Virginian,  Abe  carried  him- 
self, now  consciously,  now  unconsciously,  as  this 


PINCHING    TIMES  13 

paragon  of  his  fancy  might  have  done,  even  to  the 
point  of  leaving  a  hatchet,  or  more  accurately 
speaking,  an  axe  anecdote  for  later  generations  to 
admire.  During  those  toilsome  Indiana  days,  —  so 
runs  our  tale,  —  the  youth  was  engaged  in  clearing 
a  piece  of  woodland  some  distance  from  the  house. 
Leaving  home  early,  he  made  it  a  practice  to  carry 
some  luncheon  and  stay  away  until  nightfall.  The 
picnic  element  in  the  expedition  appealed  to  the 
taste  of  his  frolicsome  stepsister,  Matilda,  whose 
frequent  appeals  for  permission  to  accompany  him 
met  with  her  mother's  peremptory  refusals.  Eluding 
maternal  vigilance  one  morning,  the  girl  slyly  fol- 
lowed Lincoln  as  he  strode  through  the  forest,  hum- 
ming a  tune,  with  his  axe  on  his  shoulder.  At  a 
favorable  moment  she  darted  forward  and,  exerting 
cat-like  agility,  leaped  squarely  upon  him.  Grasping 
a  shoulder  with  each  hand,  she  braced  her  knee  in 
the  middle  of  his  back,  and  brought  the  young  woods- 
man dexterously  to  the  ground.  Lincoln,  taken  by 
surprise,  went  down  like  a  log,  carrying  his  assailant 
with  him.  As  they  fell  the  axe  cut  the  girl's  ankle, 
making  a  painful  wound  that  bled  freely.  After  an 
improvised  bandage  had  stanched  the  blood,  Abe, 
mindful  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  oft-repeated  orders,  looked 
down  at  the  sobbing  culprit  and  asked :  — 

"  Tilda,  what  are  you  going  to  tell  mother  about 
getting  hurt?" 

"Tell  her  I  did  it  with  the  axe,"  she  answered. 
"That  will  be  the  truth,  won't  it?" 

To  which  he  responded :  — 

"Yes,  that's  the  truth,  but  it's  not  all  the  truth. 


Tell  the  whole  truth,  'Tilda,  and  trust  your  good 
mother  for  the  rest." 23 

Whether  Tilda  did  tell  "the  whole  truth,"  and 
whether  Sally  Bush  gathered  her  or  Abraham  or 
both  of  them  to  her  heart,  after  the  manner  of 
Augustine  Washington  in  the  Reverend  Mr.  Weems's 
tale,  is  not  definitely  known.  Nevertheless,  when 
the  Plutarch  that  is  to  be  runs  his  parallel  between 
these  two  greatest  of  Americans,  the  legendary 
hatchet  and  the  historic  axe  may  become  symbolic 
of  how  closely  both  these  heroes  did  actually  hew 
to  the  line,  in  their  early  fondness  for  the  verities. 

But  if  further  youthful  similarities  shall  be  sought 
by  that  hypothetical  biographer,  he  will  not  linger 
over  the  next  episode  in  this  chronicle  of  Lincoln's 
moral  growth.  Abe  had  passed  his  nineteenth 
birthday  when  "the  great  man "  of  the  Little  Pigeon 
Creek  neighborhood,  old  James  Gentry,  picked  him 
out  for  a  signal  mark  of  confidence.  That  gentle- 
man's son,  Allen,  was  to  make  a  trading  voyage  in  a 
Mississippi  flat-boat  laden  with  goods,  and  Lincoln 
was  hired  to  share  the  adventure.  They  planned  to 
do  business  along  the  river  all  the  way,  if  necessary, 
to  the  Gulf.  Drifting  down  the  Ohio  and  thence  on 
the  broad  waters  of  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  New 
Orleans,  the  young  men  made  a  prosperous,  though 
not  entirely  uneventful  journey.  Only  one  incident 
of  the  expedition  concerns  us  here.  At  certain  land- 
ings they  were  paid  for  their  merchandise  —  as  they 
discovered  too  late  —  in  counterfeit  money.  Gen- 
try, lamenting  over  the  matter,  feared  his  father's 
anger;  whereupon  Lincoln  consoled  him  with  the 


PINCHING    TIMES  15 

suggestion  that  their  employer  would  not  care  how 
much  bad  money  they  took  in,  if  they  brought  the 
correct  amount  of  good  money  home.  "Never 
mind,  Allen,"  he  continued;  "it  will  accidentally  slip 
out  of  our  fingers  before  we  get  to  New  Orleans,  and 
then  old  Jim  can't  quarrel  at  us." 24  This  prophecy 
did,  in  fact,  come  true.  The  counterfeits,  we  are 
told,  "all  went  off  like  hot  cakes";  but  to  what  ex- 
tent the  prophet  helped  to  bring  about  so  sweeping 
a  fulfillment  is  nowhere  recorded.  When  he  and  his 
associates,  however,  on  their  return,  rendered  an 
account  of  their  stewardship  in  currency  that  was 
not  hopelessly  discredited,  old  Mr.  Gentry  is  said 
to  have  pronounced  on  Lincoln  what  corresponded 
with  the  Scriptural  commendation,  —  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant." 

In  this  approval  the  candid  historian  cannot  con- 
cur, yet  he  hesitates  to  condemn.  The  demoralized 
condition  of  our  currency  throughout  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  for  over  half  a  century,  the  bewildering 
variety  of  counterfeit  bills,  to  say  nothing  of  wildcat 
notes,  in  circulation,  and  the  scarcity  of  good  money, 
left  people  small  choice  but  to  accept  at  varying  dis- 
counts—  unless  too  obviously  spurious  — what  they 
were  offered,  and  pass  it  along  again  with  as  little 
loss  as  possible.25  One  aspect  of  the  trouble  was 
later  humorously  set  forth  by  Lincoln  himself,  in 
his  story  of  the  steamboat  captain  who,  running 
short  of  fuel  on  the  river,  steered  to  a  wood-pile 
alongshore. 

"Is  that  your  wood?"  he  inquired  of  a  man  near 
by. 


16  HONEST    ABE 

"Yes,"  was  the  answer. 

"Do  you  want  to  sell  it?" 

"Certainly." 

"Will  you  accept  wildcat  currency?" 

"Certainly." 

"How  will  you  take  it?" 

"Cord  for  cord."28 

The  passing  of  depreciated  or  fraudulent  currency, 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  business,  was  evidently  not 
regarded,  during  those  days  of  loose  financiering, 
with  the  severity  of  more  recent  times.27  Indeed, 
after  Lincoln  had  become  a  lawyer,  though  the  cli- 
ents that  offered  themselves  were  accepted  or  re- 
jected with  scrupulous  discrimination,  he  on  one 
occasion  employed  his  wit  and  ability  to  secure  the 
acquittal  of  a  man  charged,  under  suspicious  circum- 
stances, with  passing  counterfeit  money.  "There 
was  a  pretty  clear  case  against  the  accused,"  said 
Adlai  E.  Stevenson,  who  attended  the  trial,  "  but 
when  the  chief  witness  for  the  people  took  the  stand, 
he  stated  that  his  name  was  J.  Parker  Green,  and 
Lincoln  reverted  to  this  the  moment  he  rose  to  cross- 
examine:  —  Why  J.  Parker  Green?  —  What  did  the 
J.  stand  for?  —  John?  —  Well,  why  did  n't  the  wit- 
ness call  himself  John  P.  Green?  —  That  was  his 
name,  was  n't  it?  —  Well,  what  was  the  reason  he 
did  not  wish  to  be  known  by  his  right  name?  —  Did 
J.  Parker  Green  have  anything  to  conceal;  and  if 
not,  why  did  J.  Parker  Green  part  his  name  in  that 
way?  —  and  so  on.  Of  course  the  whole  examination 
was  farcical,"  Mr.  Stevenson  continued,  "but  there 
was  something  irresistibly  funny  in  the  varying 


PINCHING    TIMES  17 

tones  and  inflections  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  voice  as  he 
rang  the  changes  upon  the  man's  name;  and  at  the 
recess  the  very  boys  in  the  street  took  it  up  as  a 
slogan,  and  shouted,  '  J.  Parker  Green!'  all  over  the 
town.  Moreover,  there  was  something  in  Lincoln's 
way  of  intoning  his  questions  which  made  me  sus- 
picious of  the  witness,  and  to  this  day  I  have  never 
been  able  to  rid  my  mind  of  the  absurd  impression 
that  there  was  something  not  quite  right  about  J. 
Parker  Green.  It  was  all  nonsense,  of  course;  but 
the  jury  must  have  been  affected  as  I  was,  for  Green 
was  discredited,  and  the  defendant  went  free."  28 
Perhaps,  too,  some  of  the  twelve  good  men  and  true, 
like  the  highly  respected  counsel  for  the  defense, 
could  have  severally  recalled  times  when  the  exigen- 
cies of  trade  had  wafted  into  their  hands  worthless 
bank-bills  that,  somehow,  did  not  remain  there. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  much  water,  in  the  language  of 
the  old  byword,  was  to  flow  down  the  Mississippi 
River  before  this  clever  attorney  evolved  from  the 
gawky  young  bow-hand  on  Gentry's  flat-boat.  An- 
other trading  voyage  to  New  Orleans  in  the  spring 
of  1831,  shortly  after  he  had  begun  life  on  his  own 
account,  appears  to  have  been  as  successful  as  the 
first  one.  The  crew  comprised  Lincoln,  his  step- 
brother John  D.  Johnston,  and  his  cousin  John 
Hanks,  who  accompanied  them,  however,  but  part 
way,  leaving  the  responsibility  of  the  undertaking 
largely  on  Abraham's  shoulders.  Their  employer, 
Denton  Offutt,  a  breezy  speculator,  —  free-handed, 
optimistic,  and  given  to  superlatives,  —  conceived 
a  warm  admiration  for  Abe.  The  young  fellow  cer- 


i8  HONEST    ABE 

tainly  conducted  himself  well.  His  manly  qualities, 
his  muscular  powers,  his  unfailing  good  humor,  his 
resourcefulness  on  certain  trying  occasions,  his  fidel- 
ity to  the  trust  reposed  in  him,  above  all,  his  integ- 
rity, made  so  strong  an  impression  on  Offutt  that 
at  the  termination  of  the  voyage  he  established  a 
general  store  at  New  Salem,29  and  placed  Lincoln  in 
charge  of  it  with  the  assertion  that  this  model  clerk 
had  not  his  equal  in  the  United  States. 

Offutt's  extravagant  praise  was,  it  is  perhaps 
needless  to  say,  not  wholly  merited.  A  keener  mer- 
chant might  have  hesitated  to  entrust  the  manage- 
ment of  his  business,  and  of  the  neighboring  mill 
that  was  presently  merged  with  the  enterprise,  to 
a  young  man  of  Lincoln's  peculiar  make-up.  Abe 
had,  it  is  true,  learned  something  of  storekeeping  dur- 
ing the  old  Gentryville  days,  in  the  grocery  of  his 
friend  William  Jones;  and  a  small  stock  of  goods 
purchased  there,  when  the  Lincoln  family  moved 
from  Indiana  to  Illinois,  had  been  profitably  peddled, 
on  the  way.  Moreover,  those  trading  trips  to  New 
Orleans  had  doubtless  contributed  somewhat  to  his 
commercial  training;  but  no  amount  of  experience 
could  make  a  successful  business  man  of  one  so  lack- 
ing, as  was  Tom  Lincoln's  son,  in  aptitude  for  hiving 
the  nimble  sixpence.  How  not  to  do  so  appears,  in  a 
sense,  to  have  concerned  him  more.  Yet  the  scrupu- 
lous care  with  which  he  shut  Offutt's  till  against  the 
sixpences  that  did  not  belong  there  would,  had  it 
been  combined  with  mercantile  ability,  probably  in 
the  end  have  made  the  young  clerk's  fortune.  His 
honesty  became  a  by- word. 


PINCHING    TIMES  19 

Two  typical  instances  of  uprightness  in  small 
things  especially  impressed  themselves  on  the  mem- 
ory of  the  neighborhood.  It  is  said  that  once,  having 
sold  a  woman  a  bill  of  goods,  he  found  after  her  de- 
parture that  she  had  paid  six  and  a  quarter  cents 
more  than  the  purchases  amounted  to.  When  the 
store  was  closed  at  night,  so  the  story  goes,  he 
walked  several  miles  into  the  country  to  give  his 
customer  the  fourpenny  piece  which  balanced  her 
over-payment.  Here  again  Lincoln's  punctilious 
honesty  recalls  that  of  Washington.  It  is  related 
that  a  ferryman  on  the  Genefal's  estate,  in  making 
change  for  a  moidore,  took  out  one  and  a  half  pence 
too  much.  Discovering  the  over-charge  when  the 
accounts  for  the  week  were  made  up,  Washington 
wrapped  three  halfpence  in  a  piece  of  paper,  and 
had  them  delivered  to  the  traveler  on  his  return.30 

The  other  anecdote  concerning  Lincoln,  that  be- 
longs in  this  group,  tells  how  one  night,  just  before 
closing  time,  he  hastily  weighed,  as  he  thought,  half 
a  pound  of  tea  for  a  belated  customer.  Looking  at 
the  scales  on  the  following  morning,  he  discovered 
that  a  weight  of  four  ounces,  instead  of  eight,  had 
been  used.  To  wrap  up  another  quarter  of  a  pound 
of  tea,  close  the  store  again,  and  deliver  his  parcel 
at  the  end  of  a  long  walk  before  breakfast,  was  the 
only  method  of  repairing  the  error  that  presented 
itself  to  this  primitive  conscience. 

The  young  clerk's  ethical  creed  during  those  New 
Salem  days  seems  simple  enough.  It  has  been  pre- 
served by  a  friend,  who  thus  restates  what  he  gath- 
ered, under  this  head,  in  the  course  of  conversation: 


20  HONEST    ABE 

"Lincoln  said  he  did  not  believe  in  total  deprav- 
ity, and,  although  it  was  not  popular  to  believe  it, 
it  was  easier  to  do  right  than  wrong;  that  the  first 
thought  was:  what  was  right?  and  the  second:  what 
was  wrong?  Therefore  it  was  easier  to  do  right  than 
wrong,  and  easier  to  take  care  of,  as  it  would  take 
care  of  itself.  It  took  an  effort  to  do  wrong,  and  a 
still  greater  effort  to  take  care  of  it.  But  do  right 
and  it  would  take  care  of  itself.  Then  you  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  go  ahead  and  do  right  and 
nothing  to  trouble  you."31 

Out  of  this  philosophy  developed  —  to  borrow  a 
cynical  phrase  —  the  acute  attacks  of  chronic  in- 
tegrity that  attracted  particular  attention  to  Lin- 
coln, even  in  the  midst  of  an  honest,  plain-dealing 
community.  The  rude  people  around  him,  for  the 
most  part,  led  upright  lives,  and  they  expected 
others  to  do  likewise;  yet  his  efforts  to  treat  every 
man  with  fairness  were  so  pronounced  as  to  evoke 
frequent  comment  among  them.  Their  talk  crystal- 
Iked,  at  last,  in  the  sobriquet,  "Honest  Abe."  This 
name,  having  been  generally  adopted  throughout 
the  New  Salem  vicinage,  fitted  Lincoln  so  nicely 
that  it  clung  to  him,  with  slight  variations,  in  one 
form  or  another,  until  the  end  of  his  career. 

Meanwhile  Offutt  did  not  prosper.  He  appears 
to  have  had  too  many  irons  in  the  fire,  and  one  of 
them,  as  we  know,  was  under  the  care  of  a  man  who 
had  no  particular  talent  for  keeping  irons,  or  any- 
thing else,  at  a  money-making  glow.  Neither  the 
honesty  nor  the  popularity  of  this  clerk  —  for  the 
young  fellow  had  gained  the  good-will  of  their  cus- 


PINCHING    TIMES  21 

tomers  —  sufficed  to  save  the  store  from  the  general 
ruin  in  which  the  owner's  several  ventures  became 
involved.-  Failure  overtook  the  new  business  before 
the  end  of  its  first  year.  As  the  place  is  sold  out, 
Offutt  disappears  from  historic  view ;  while  Lincoln 
steps  nearer  to  the  lime-light  for  a  brief  but  bloodless 
essay  at  soldiering  in  the  Black  Hawk  War.  Return- 
ing to  New  Salem  upon  the  conclusion  of  the  cam- 
paign, he  made  an  unsuccessful  canvass,  on  a  Na- 
tional Republican  platform,  for  election  to  the  State 
Legislature.  Then  "without  means  and  out  of  busi- 
ness," as  he  himself  expressed  it,  but  "anxious  to 
remain  with  his  friends,"  Lincoln  looked  about  him 
for  something  to  do.  Stalwart  of  frame,  with  well- 
knit  muscles,  he  naturally  came  to  the  thought  of 
again  earning  a  living  by  manual  labor.  The  black- 
smith's trade,  which  several  of  his  forbears  had 
creditably  followed,  was,  for  a  time,  seriously  con- 
sidered. It  had,  in  fact,  almost  been  decided  on, 
when  two  of  those  new-found  friends,  the  Herndon 
brothers,  familiarly  known  as  "Row"  and  "Jim," 
offered  their  general  store  for  sale.  James  sold  his 
interest  to  William  F.  Berry,  the  son  of  a  neighbor- 
ing Presbyterian  minister,  and  Rowan  soon  after 
disposed  of  his  share  to  Lincoln,  receiving  in  lieu 
of  money  "Honest  Abe's"  promise  to  pay.  When 
"Row"  was  asked  how  he  came  to  make  such  lib- 
eral terms  with  a  penniless  man  whom  he  had  known 
for  so  short  a  time,  he  answered:  "I  believed  he 
was  thoroughly  honest,  and  that  impression  was 
so  strong  in  me  I  accepted  his  note  in  payment 
of  the  whole.  He  had  no  money,  but  I  would 


22  HONEST    ABE 

have 'advanced  him  still  more  had  he  asked  for 
it."  32 

Herndon  was  not  the  only  New  Salemite  who  was 
willing  to  transfer  his  business,  after  this  fashion, 
for  a  promissory  note.  Soon  after  the  transaction,  a 
neighboring  storekeeper,  Reuben  Radford  by  name, 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  a  local  gang,  "the  Clary's 
Grove  boys,"  to  such  an  extent  that  they  made  a 
riotous  night  of  it  in  his  place.  On  the  following 
morning,  standing  discouraged  amid  the  d6bris  of 
the  establishment,  Radford  sold  it  to  the  first  comer, 
William  G.  Greene,  a  youth  who  had  been  a  sort  of 
junior  clerk  in  the  Offutt  store.  As  the  purchaser 
could  not  pay  in  cash  the  four  hundred  dollars 
agreed  upon,  he  gave  his  note.  Then,  growing 
nervous  over  the  transaction,  he  turned  for  comfort 
to  his  former  associate.  Lincoln  said:  "Cheer  up, 
Billy.  It's  a  good  thing.  We'll  take  an  inventory." 

They  found  that  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  which 
had  survived  the  storm,  amounted  in  value  to  $1200. 
Whereupon  Berry  and  Lincoln  offered  Greene  a  sub- 
stantial profit  on-  his  bargain.  This  the  young  man 
eagerly  accepted,  with  the  stipulation  that  the  firm 
should  assume  his  indebtedness  to  Radford.  There 
was  a  little  more  shuffling  of  notes,  and  the  goods 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Berry  and  Lincoln.33  They 
shortly  afterwards,  in  presumably  the  same  man- 
ner, absorbed  a  small  business  owned  by  James 
Rutledge.  Combining  these  three  stocks,  —  all  ac- 
quired by  a  few  strokes  of  the  pen,  —  Lincoln  and 
his  partner  now  had  what  the  junior  member  later 
ironically  referred  to  as  "the  store"  of  New  Salem. 


PINCHING    TIMES  23 

Despite  its  virtual  monopoly  along  certain  lines, 
the  new  firm  was  ill-adapted  to  succeed.  Berry  soon 
developed  habits  of  idleness  and  intemperance  that 
would  have  been  fatal  to  any  business ; 34  while  Lin- 
coln, though  ambitious  and  sober  to  an  exceptional 
degree,  was  hardly  more  effective.  His  keen  inter- 
est in  books,  study,  newspapers,  politics,  funny 
stories,  horse-races,  wrestling-matches,  feats  of 
strength,  —  anything,  in  short,  but  buying  and  sell- 
ing, —  left  him  far  from  alert  to  what  is  commonly 
called  the  main  chance.  When  one  remembers  these 
pursuits,  moreover,  to  have  been  the  preoccupations 
of  a  man  who  combined  rigid  integrity  with  a  kindly 
nature,  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn,  as  Cousin  Dennis 
relates,  that  "he  purty  nigh  always  got  the  wust  of  a 
trade."  35  The  rest  is  soon  told.  Berry  and  Lincoln 
did  not  thrive.  Giving  up  the  struggle  after  several 
ineffectual  shifts,  they  sold  out,  early  in  1834,  to 
Alexander  and  William  Trent.  The  purchasers  had 
no  money,  but  they  willingly  gave  notes,  which  the 
sellers  as  willingly  accepted.  Before  these  obliga- 
tions fell  due,  however,  the  Trent  brothers  had  dis- 
appeared, their  few  remaining  goods  had  been  seized 
by  creditors,  and  the  business  had  come  to  an  inglo- 
rious close. 

Berry's  death,  soon  after,  left  the  surviving  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  to  face,  alone,  the  consequences  of 
their  ill-starred  venture.  Yet  he  could  not  bring 
himself  to  join  in  the  censure  which  was  heaped  upon 
the  young  man's  memory.  With  characteristic  con- 
sideration for  his  partner's  father,  the  Reverend 
John  M.  Berry,  whom  he  held  in  affectionate  regard, 


24  HONEST    ABE 

Lincoln  declared  that  William's  dissipation  was  a 
result  rather  than  a  cause  of  their  misfortunes;  and 
took  on  his  own  shoulders  the  burden  of  liabilities 
bound  up  in  those  unpaid  notes  to  Herndon,  Rad- 
ford,  Greene,  and  Rutledge. 

How  serious  the  whole  affair  was  may  be  gathered 
from  this  account  of  it,  given  by  the  hapless  debtor 
to  a  friend  36  of  later  days:  "That  debt  was  the 
greatest  obstacle  I  have  ever  met  in  life.  I  had  no 
way  of  speculating,  and  could  not  earn  money  except 
by  labor,  and  to  earn  by  labor  eleven  hundred  dol- 
lars, besides  my  living,  seemed  the  work  of  a  life- 
time. There  was,  however,  but  one  way.  I  went  to 
the  creditors  and  told  them  that  if  they  would  let 
me  alone,  I  would  give  them  all  I  could  earn,  over 
my  living,  as  fast  as  I  could  earn  it."  37 

During  the  next  few  months  no  surplus,  it  is  per- 
haps needless  to  add,  was  available  for  this  purpose. 
In  fact,  the  situation  reduced  itself  to  a  struggle  for 
bread.  Lincoln's  earnings  from  the  office  of  local 
postmaster,  to  which  he  had  been  appointed  before 
the  above  "winked  out,"  were  of  course  meager  in 
the  extreme ;  but  he  contrived  to  pick  up  a  living  by 
doing  odd  jobs  about  the  neighborhood.  Helping 
his  friends  —  now  Hill,  now  Ellis  —  behind  their 
counters,  working  in  the  field  as  a  farm  laborer, 
splitting  rails,  lending  a  hand  at  the  mill,  —  briefly, 
making  himself  useful  on  all  sides,  in  his  big,  good- 
natured  way,  he  just  "kept,"  to  quote  the  auto- 
biography, "soul  and  body  together."  38 

Throughout  this  trying  period,  however,  Lincoln 
did  not  lose  sight  of  his  self-respect,  or  of  the  respect 


PINCHING    TIMES  25 

due  to  him  from  others.  He  began  to  manifest  that 
sensitive  chastity  of  honor  which  recoils  from  doubt 
as  from  a  blow.  So,  when  a  patron  of  the  post-office, 
upon  payment  of  certain  arrears  demanded  an 
acknowledgment,  "A.  Lincoln,  P.M.,"  responded: 
"I  am  somewhat  surprised  at  your  request.  I  will, 
however,  comply  with  it.  The  law  requires  news- 
paper postage  to  be  paid  in  advance,  and  now  that  I 
have  waited  a  full  year,  you  choose  to  wound  my 
feelings  by  insinuating  that  unless  you  get  a  receipt 
I  will  probably  make  you  pay  it  again."  39 

The  reputation  for  honesty,  which  Lincoln  so  jeal- 
ously guarded,  had  meanwhile  opened  to  him  an- 
other channel  for  occasional  employment.  This 
opportunity  came  through  John  Calhoun,  the  sur- 
veyor of  Sangamon  County,  who,  overburdened 
with  business,  was  looking  about  for  an  assistant  of 
intelligence  and  unquestioned  integrity.  The  latter 
qualification  appears  to  have  been  especially  im- 
portant at  the  time,  owing  to  a  mania  for  specula- 
tion in  land  that  had  possessed  the  people  of  the 
region  to  such  a  degree  as  almost  to  put  a  premium 
on  jobbery.  A  man  beyond  the  reach  of  corruption 
was,  therefore,  what  Calhoun  sought  when  he  offered 
to  make  Abraham  Lincoln  one  of  his  deputies.  The 
honor  must  have  been  not  less  flattering  to  the 
young  National  Republican,  because  it  came,  as  had 
the  postmastership,  from  a  Democratic  source,  and 
with  the  assurance  that  his  acceptance  carried  with 
it  no  obligation  of  party  service,  nor  restraint  upon 
his  freedom  of  political  action.  To  Lincoln's  declara- 
tion that  he  knew  nothing  whatever  about  survey- 


26  HONEST    ABE 

ing,  Calhoun  responded  with  an  offer  to  aid  him. 
Books  and  material  having  been  procured,  six  weeks 
of  earnest  study  ensued.  For  assistance  in  learning 
the  theory  of  the  subject,  Lincoln  turned  to  his 
friend,  Mentor  Graham,  the  local  schoolmaster;  for 
guidance  in  the  practical  application  of  the  rules,  he 
depended  on  the  surveyor  himself.  When  the  period 
of  preparation  had  reached  its  close,  the  new-fledged 
deputy  is  said  to  have  made  his  pathetic  little 
speech:  "Calhoun,  I  am  entirely  unable  to  repay 
you  for  your  generosity,  at  present.  All  that  I  have 
you  see  on  me,  except  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  in  my 
pocket."  40 

Such  extreme  poverty  left  Lincoln,  of  course, 
unable  to  pay  cash  for  the  saddle-horse  that  his  new 
duties  obliged  him  to  buy.  He  agreed  to  take  care  of 
the  bill  by  installments;  he  did  so,  but  ran  behind 
when  only  ten  dollars  remained  unpaid.  Where- 
upon his  creditor,  a  horse-dealer  named  Thomas 
Watkins,  who  is  described  as  "  a  high-strung  man," 
lost  his  temper  and  sued  for  what  was  still  due. 
Lincoln  did  not  deny  the  debt.  He  hastily  raised 
the  required  sum  and  settled  the  suit. 

A  still  more  unpleasant  experience  followed,  for 
the  young  surveyor  was  destined  to  drain  his  cup  of 
mortification  to  its  dregs.  One  of  the  Berry-Lincoln 
notes  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  certain  Van 
Bergen,  who  forthwith  brought  suit  and  obtained 
judgment.  Levying  on  the  horse,  saddle,  and  sur- 
veying instruments,  he  offered  them  for  sale  in  satis- 
faction of  his  claim.  But  Lincoln's  loyal  friends 
were  not  disposed  to  stand  idly  by  while  he  was  de- 


PINCHING    TIMES  27 

prived  of  the  means  of  earning  a  livelihood.  They 
bought  the  effects  that  had  been  seized,  restored 
them  to  their  former  owner,  and  took  the  place  of 
the  impatient  Van  Bergen  among  his  creditors.41  The 
loans,  so  handsomely  made,  were  in  time  repaid  by 
Lincoln,  principal  and  interest,  as  were  all  the  obli- 
gations left  in  the  train  of  his  unfortunate  business 
ventures.  Disdaining  to  take  advantage  of  a  re- 
cently enacted  law  for  the  relief  of  insolvent  debtors, 
he  set  himself  resolutely  to  the  task  of  seeing  to  it 
that  no  man  should  lose  a  penny  by  reason  of  any 
note  which  contained  his  signature.  Yet  the  pros* 
pect  might  have  appalled  a  stouter  heart.  At  times, 
when  the  seeming  hopelessness  of  the  undertaking 
was  borne  in  upon  him,  he  referred  to  what  was  still 
to  be  paid,  with  whimsical  humor,  as  "the  national 
debt."  How  long  the  process  of  liquidation  did,  in 
fact,  take  is  not  precisely  known.  Lincoln's  occa- 
sional payments  on  account  of  these  claims  would 
doubtless  have  made  a  braver  showing  had  the  only 
other  demands  upon  him  been  for  his  own  simple 
wants;  but,  in  addition  to  such  outlays,  the  frequent 
aid  extended  to  his  parents,  and  the  requirements, 
after  his  marriage,  of  a  growing  family,  all  had 
to  come  out  of  earnings  that  never,  at  their  best, 
were  munificent.  Nevertheless,  through  good  times 
and  bad,  the  load  of  indebtedness  became  steadily 
lighter,  until,  after  seventeen  years  or  more  of  self- 
denial,  the  last  note,  with  its  heavy  accumulations 
of  interest,  was  paid.42 

A  less  scrupulous  man  than  Abraham  Lincoln 
might  have  appreciably  shortened  this  debt-bound 


28  HONEST    ABE 

period  from  the  very  beginning.  As  deputy  surveyor 
under  John  Calhoun,  and  later,  under  that  officer's 
successor,  Thomas  M.  Neale,  he  doubtless  had  op- 
portunities enough  for  employing  his  knowledge  of 
what  was  going  on,  together  with  his  still  unimpaired 
credit,  in  profitable  land  speculations.  But  he  could 
not  bring  himself  to  mingle  the  pursuit  of  private 
gain  with  public  duties;  and  he  scorned  to  use,  on 
his  own  account,  information  derived  from  official 
sources.43  The  same  conscientious  spirit  so  mani- 
festly entered  into  the  doing  of  the  work  itself  that 
he  soon  gained  the  confidence  of  those  who  employed 
him.  They  believed  in  the  young  surveyor's  accur- 
acy, as  well  as  in  his  fairness,  to  such  an  extent  that 
disputes  concerning  boundaries  or  corners  were  fre- 
quently submitted  to  him  for  arbitration ;  and,  what 
is  of  greater  moment,  his  findings,  we  are  told,  were 
invariably  accepted  by  the  conflicting  parties  as 
final.  A  quarrel  of  this  nature,  about  a  corner,  took 
place  in  the  northern  part  of  the  county.  "After  a 
good  deal  of  disputing,"  relates  one  of  the  owners, 
"we  agreed  to  send  for  Lincoln,  and  to  abide  by 
his  decision.  He  came  with  compass,  flagstaff,  and 
chain.  He  stopped  with  me  three  or  four  days  and 
surveyed  the  whole  section.  When  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  disputed  corner  by  actual  survey,  he 
called  for  his  staff  and,  driving  it  in  the  ground  at  a 
certain  spot  said,  'Gentlemen,  here  is  the  corner.' 
We  dug  down  into  the  ground  at  the  point  indicated 
and  lo !  there  we  found  about  six  or  eight  inches  of 
the  original  stake  sharpened  at  the  end,  and  beneath 
which  was  the  usual  piece  of  charcoal  placed  there 


PINCHING    TIMES  29 

by  Rector,  the  surveyor  who  laid  the  ground  off  for 
the  Government  many  years  before."  So  well  had 
the  work  been  done  that  in  this  instance,  as  in  the 
others,  differences  were  at  an  end,  and  all  concerned 
"went  away  completely  satisfied."  44 

There  is  another  aspect  of  Lincoln's  early  life 
that  should  not  be  overlooked.  He  was  apparently 
never  too  busy  for  the  contests  of  strength  and  skill 
from  which  came  some  of  his  first  sweet  triumphs  in 
leadership.  That  these  were  won,  for  the  most  part, 
with  ease  must  have  made  defeat,  when  it  did  on  rare 
occasions  occur,  peculiarly  hard  to  bear;  yet  he 
carried  himself ,  according  to  all  accounts, — whether 
victor  or  vanquished,  —  as  a  man  of  honor  should. 
In  fact,  save  for  a  single  untoward  act  which  must 
be  charged  to  the  hobbledehoy  exuberance  of  his 
youthful  Indiana  days,45  Lincoln  treated  whatever 
happened  at  these  sports  with  the  same  extreme  can- 
dor and  nicety  of  good  faith  that  marked  his  business 
dealings.  Perhaps  the  most  notable  instance  is  that 
of  a  certain  wrestling-match  which  took  place  during 
the  Black  Hawk  War.  At  the  risk  of  telling  a  twice- 
told  tale,  the  story  is  repeated  here,  —  told  anew 
rather  than  repeated,  for  the  later  researches  of  an 
Illinois  historian  have  contributed  not  a  few  addi- 
tional details.46  They  reveal  Lincoln  in  the  full 
flower  of  sportsmanlike  honesty. 

Having  been  elected  Captain  of  the  Volunteers 
from  Sangamon  County,  he  was  ever  ready  to  up- 
hold the  credit  of  his  company  in  the  rough  pas- 
times whereby  the  soldiers  sought  to  relieve  the  te- 
dium of  that  peculiar  campaign.  Proud  of  their 


30  HONEST   ABE 

leader's  exploits,  especially  as  a  wrestler,  they 
boasted  that  no  man  in  the  army  could  throw  him ; 
and  he,  at  the  same  time,  owed  much  of  his  ascend- 
ancy over  their  undisciplined  natures  to  the  uni- 
form success  with  which  he  downed  all  comers.  But 
Antaeus  himself  met  his  match  at  last. 

One  evening  on  the  march,  our  phalanx  from 
Sangamon  happened  upon  a  choice  piece  of  camp- 
ing-ground at  about  the  time  it  was  reached  by  a 
company  from  St.  Clair  County.  In  the  altercations 
which  ensued  a  disgraceful  scuffle  seemed  imminent, 
when  Lincoln  proposed  to  William  Moore,  the  op- 
posing commander,  that  they  might  settle  their  dis- 
pute after  the  good  old-fashioned  method  of  single 
combat  —  captain  against  captain.  This  suggestion 
met  with  a  modified  approval.  As  the  officer  from 
St.  Clair  had  no  skill  in  wrestling,  it  was  agreed  that 
each  company  should  be  represented  by  its  stoutest 
champion.  Accordingly,  Lincoln  soon  stood  within 
a  circle  of  excited  men,  facing  a  redoubtable  athlete 
from  southern  Illinois,  in  the  person  of  private 
Lorenzo  Dow  Thompson.  Both  combatants  had 
won  the  confidence  of  their  respective  friends,  who 
hastened  to  back  their  faith  with  bets,  eagerly 
offered  and  as  eagerly  accepted.  Nor  were  the 
gathering  crowds  of  soldiers  from  other  companies 
slow  to  gratify  their  sporting  tastes.  ' '  Up  went  pow- 
der-horns, guns,  watches,  coats,  horses,  pay-rolls, 
and  reputations  until,"  —  so  runs  the  chronicle, — 
"there  remained  not  one  solitary  article  of  property 
in  possession  or  expectancy  thereof,  which  had  not 
been  put  into  the  pot  on  that  match."  The  referee, 


PINCHING    TIMES  31 

Captain  Moore's  brother  Jonathan,  announced,  as 
he  tossed  up  a  coin  for  choice  of  "holts,"  that  two 
falls  in  three  would  decide  the  match;  and  the  men 
grappled. 

It  did  not  take  Lincoln  long  to  discover  that  his 
record  was  in  danger.  Calling  to  his  friends,  with 
characteristic  frankness,  he  managed  to  say:  "This 
is  the  most  powerful  man  I  ever  had  hold  of. 
He  will  throw  me  and  you  will  lose  your  all,  unless 
I  act  on  the  defensive." 

Yet  Thompson  was  too  quick  for  him.  All  of 
Lincoln's  extraordinary  strength  did  not  avail 
against  the  St.  Clair  man's  skill,  and  in  a  few  mo- 
ments the  pride  of  New  Salem  measured  his  six  feet 
four  inches  on  the  ground  —  fairly  thrown.  Their 
second  round  did  not  differ  widely  from  the  first. 
After  attempting  his  favorite  devices  in  vain,  the 
tall  captain  again  went  to  earth,  this  time,  however, 
pulling  his  antagonist  down  on  top  of  him. 

"Dog  fall!"  shouted  Lincoln's  supporters, seizing 
on  a  pretext  for  dispute. 

"Fair  fall!"  defiantly  retorted  the  others. 

A  general  fight  —  and  a  serious  one  at  that  — 
seemed  inevitable,  when  Lincoln  springing  to  his 
feet  averted,  for  the  second  time  in  this  affair,  a 
scene  of  bloodshed. 

"Boys,"  he  cried,  "give  up  your  bets;  if  he  has 
not  thrown  me  fairly,  he  could."  47 

This  frank  admission  put  an  end  to  all  hopes  of  fur- 
ther resistance.  The  "boys "  reluctantly  obeyed,  and 
Captain  Moore's  followers  took  possession  of  their 
captured  bivouac,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  victory.48 


32  HONEST    ABE 

But  were  they  the  only  victors?  Marshaling  the 
several  elements  which  went  to  make  up  this  little 
drama,  recalling  what  defeat  meant  to  the  Sanga- 
mon  chief,  and  how  easy  it  might  have  been  for  him 
to  hide  his  discomfiture  under  cover  of  the  mllee 
which  he  had  prevented,  thoughtful  readers  will 
perhaps  agree  that  the  true  hero  of  the  episode  — 
all  things  considered  —  did  not  rest  that  night  in  the 
camp  of  the  St.  Clair  rangers.49 

Virile  men,  rude  and  cultured  alike,  admire  a 
winner;  but  how  their  hearts  go  out  to  him  who  can 
lose  or  win  with  equal  grace !  So  it  was  in  Lincoln's 
case.  During  what  might  be  called  his  New  Salem 
period,  he  became  the  central  figure  of  those  occa- 
sional little  gatherings  at  which  the  settlers  sought 
to  amuse  themselves.  They  made  him  preside  over 
horse-races,  wrestling-matches,  athletic  games,  and 
what  not.  Indeed,  even  cock-fights  seemed  incom- 
plete if  he  was  missing  from  the  judge's  corner. 
Expert  knowledge  of  these  pastimes,  applied  with 
tact,  good  nature,  and  ready  wit,  went  far  to  make 
his  decisions  acceptable,  even  had  they  not  been 
pronounced  by  a  muscular  giant,  who  could  always 
be  relied  on  to  enforce  compliance.  More  note- 
worthy, however,  than  all  other  circumstances  was 
the  abiding  faith  of  this  entire  community  in  the 
young  man's  squareness.  Said  one  old  resident, 
reviving  precious  memories:  "In  the  spring  or  sum- 
mer of  1832,  I  had  a  horse-race  with  George  War- 
burton.  I  got  Lincoln,  who  was  at  the  race,  to  be 
a  judge  of  the  race,  much  against  his  will,  and 
after  hard  persuasion.  Lincoln  decided  correctly,  and 


PINCHING    TIMES  33 

the  other  judge  said,  'Lincoln  is  the  fairest  man  I 
ever  had  to  deal  with.  If  Lincoln  is  in  this  county 
when  I  die,  I  want  him  to  be  my  administrator,  for 
he  is  the  only  man  I  ever  met  with  that  was  wholly 
and  unselfishly  honest.' " 60 

As  might  have  been  expected,  this  talent  for  hold- 
ing the  scales  with  a  steady  hand  brought  more  se- 
rious duties.  When  arrangements  were  made,  from 
time  to  time,  in  approved  frontier  fashion,  for  the 
fist-fights  whereby  these  backwoodsmen  sought  to 
adjust  their  irreconcilable  differences,  Lincoln,  if 
not  called  upon  to  second  one  of  the  principals,  was 
usually  named  by  both  as  referee.  Such  functions 
are,  in  the  nature  of  things,  difficult  to  perform ;  yet 
he  conducted  himself,  according  to  all  accounts,  with 
spirit,  and  with  painstaking  fidelity  to  the  rules  of 
fair  play.  It  is  said,  moreover,  that  he  officiated 
on  these  occasions  reluctantly  —  in  fact,  only  after 
failing  to  bring  about  settlements  of  the  quarrels  by 
peaceable  means.  For  it  was  as  arbitrator  between 
man  and  man  that  his  ripening  intuitions  of  equity 

—  tempered  by  kindly  sympathies  with  both  sides 

—  had  their  largest  scope.   With  such  precision  — 
to  quote  from  an  ancient  judicial  oath —  "as  the 
herring's  backbone  doth  lie  in  the  midst  of  the  fish," 
did  he  draw  the  line  between  conflicting  interests. 
Even  those  who  were  inclined  to  demur  at  his  deci- 
sions usually  came  to  see  that  a  lean  compromise 
was  better  than  a  fat  lawsuit.   So,  in  one  way  and 
another,  to  not  a  few  people  along  the  Sangamon, 
Abraham  Lincoln  became,  after  a  fashion,  the  court 
of  last  resort.51    It  would  seem  as  if,  at  this  early 


34  HONEST    ABE 

date,  he  himself  might  have  been  found  worthy  of 
the  eulogy  pronounced  by  him,  some  years  later,  on 
a  departed  friend:  "In  his  intercourse  with  his  fel- 
low-men, he  possessed  that  rare  uprightness  of  char- 
acter, which  was  evidenced  by  his  having  no  dis- 
putes or  bickerings  of  his  own,  while  he  was  ever  the 
chosen  arbiter  to  settle  those  of  his  neighbors."52 

So  far,  indeed,  did  Lincoln  carry  his  peacemaking 
activities  that  the  local  justice,  with  an  eye  to  dimin- 
ishing fees,  complained  of  interference.  If  this  func- 
tionary, as  seems  likely,  was  Squire  Bowling  Green, 
who  had  befriended  our  amateur  judge  in  many 
ways,  the  situation  must  have  been  peculiarly  un- 
pleasant. But,  be  that  as  it  may,  Lincoln  did  not 
adjourn  court.  Taking  the  rebuke  amiably,  he  ex- 
plained how  hard  it  was  for  him  to  see  his  neigh- 
bors spend  money  in  unnecessary  litigation  and  — 
what  was  more  important  still  —  how  desirous  he 
felt  of  saving  them  from  perhaps  lifelong  enmities 
which  might  be  prevented.  That  reply  was  far- 
reaching.  It  opened  a  window,  so  to  say,  in  the 
speaker's  heart,  and  threw  a  flood  of  light  forward 
upon  many  things  which  he  did,  and  many  more 
which  he  refrained  from  doing,  throughout  the  fruit- 
ful years  that  were  to  come. 

What  motives  first  directed  Lincoln's  attention 
to  the  legal  profession  as  a  career  are  not  definitely 
known.  Whether  the  bar  took  his  fancy  on  account 
of  that  ideal  justice  to  which  lawyers  theoretically, 
at  least,  dedicate  themselves,  or  whether  he  was 
moved  by  more  commonplace  incentives,  such  as  a 
taste  for  study,  the  desire  to  gain  a  livelihood  by 


PINCHING    TIMES  35 

means  of  an  honorable  calling,  aspirations  to  become 
a  controlling  factor  in  other  men's  affairs,  and  the 
like,  can  only  be  surmised.  Perhaps  each  of  these 
considerations  carried  due  weight.  They  certainly 
all  had  time  enough  to  make  their  presence  felt. 
For,  as  far  back  as  the  youthful  days  at  Gentryville, 
we  find  Abraham,  in  his  insatiable  craving  for  the 
printed  page,  poring  over  a  copy  of  the  Indiana 
Statutes.53  This  volume  was  supplemented  pres- 
ently by  such  books  as  he  could  borrow  from  Jus- 
tice John  Pitcher  of  Rockport,  whose  kindly  inter- 
est in  the  lad  grew  out  of  his  admiration  for  a  little 
composition  on  the  American  government,  which 
one  of  the  young  writer's  friends  had  submitted  to 
judicial  criticism.  "The  world  could  n't  beat  it," 
was  Pitcher's  comment,  and  thenceforth  Lincoln 
had  the  run  of  his  office.54  At  about  the  same  time 
came  opportunities  —  or  rather  Abe  made  oppor- 
tunities —  for  seeing  the  law  administered.  When- 
ever sessions  of  the  circuit  court  for  the  adjoining 
county  were  held  in  Boonville,  he  would  trudge  over 
the  road  —  a  matter  of  fifteen  miles  —  to  attend. 
What  took  place  there  doubtless  repaid  him. 
Closely  following  every  word  and  act  in  the  rustic 
drama  of  justice,  as  it  unfolded  itself  before  his 
fascinated  gaze,  he  seemed  identified,  so  to  say, 
with  the  proceedings.  They  took  such  hold  upon 
his  mind  that  he  rehearsed  them  at  home,  reenact- 
ing  the  court-room  scenes  and  holding  mock-trials  in 
which  a  certain  gawky  country  boy  defended  imag- 
inary prisoners  against  unjust  charges,  with  uni- 
form success.  If  he  might  only  become  a  lawyer !  But 


36  HONEST    ABE 

such  a  notion  was  out  of  the  question.  His  parents, 
as  he  explained  to  Judge  Pitcher,  were  so  poor  that 
they  could  not  spare  him  long  enough  for  study. 
And  there  the  matter  rested  while  the  years  passed 
on.  In  fact,  it  was  not  until  after  Lincoln  had  left 
home  and  had  become  a  business  man  at  New  Salem 
that  his  youthful  ambition,  dormant  though  never 
wholly  forgotten  during  the  long  intervening  period, 
began  to  revive.  While  casting  about  for  something 
to  do,  on  his  return  from  the  Black  Hawk  War, 
he  again  thought  of  taking  up  this  calling;  but  the 
idea  was  promptly  dismissed  because,  to  quote  his 
own  opinion,  he  "could  not  succeed  at  that  with- 
out a  better  education."  Nevertheless,  before  many 
months  had  elapsed,  a  chance  occurrence  during  the 
ill-starred  Berry  partnership  quickened  into  life, 
beyond  any  previous  experience,  Lincoln's  desire  to 
study  law.  How  this  came  about  he  himself,  chat- 
ting once  with  an  acquaintance,  in  a  reminiscent 
mood,  thus  related:  — 

"One  day  a  man  who  was  migrating  to  the  West 
drove  up  in  front  of  my  store  with  a  wagon  which 
contained  his  family  and  household  plunder.  He 
asked  me  if  I  would  buy  an  old  barrel  for  which  he 
had  no  room  in  his  wagon,  and  which  he  said  con- 
tained nothing  of  special  value.  I  did  not  want  it, 
but  to  oblige  him  I  bought  it,  and  paid  him,  I  think, 
half  a  dollar  for  it.  Without  further  examination,  I 
put  it  away  in  the  store,  and  forgot  all  about  it. 
Some  time  after,  in  overhauling  things,  I  came  upon 
the  barrel,  and  emptying  it  upon  the  floor  to  see 
what  it  contained,  I  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  rub- 


PINCHING    TIMES  37 

bish  a  complete  edition  of  Blackstone's  Commen- 
taries. I  began  to  read  those  famous  works,  and  I 
had  plenty  of  time ;  for,  during  the  long  summer  days, 
when  the  farmers  were  busy  with  their  crops,  my 
customers  were  few  and  far  between.  The  more  I 
read"  — this  he  said  with  a  sweeping  gesture  and 
a  high  pitch  of  enthusiasm  in  his  voice  —  "the  more 
intensely  interested  I  became.  Never  in  my  whole 
life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed.  I  read 
until  I  devoured  them."  55 

Lincoln's  re-awakened  appetite  for  legal  lore  was 
destined  soon  to  be  gratified.  After  the  store  had, 
like  that  barrel  of  rubbish,  passed  into  the  limbo  of 
discarded  things,  he  turned  from  his  surveying  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1834  long  enough  to  make  a  sec- 
ond, and  this  time  successful,  canvass  for  election 
to  the  State  Legislature.  While  traveling  over  his 
district,  the  young  politician  saw  much  of  a  fellow 
candidate  on  the  Whig  ticket,  Major  John  T.  Stu- 
art, with  whom  he  had  served  two  years  before 
through  the  Black  Hawk  War.  Stuart,  an  attorney 
in  reputable  practice  at  Springfield,  conceived  a 
high  regard  for  Lincoln's  character  and  ability.  So 
that  when  Abraham  confided  to  him  his  inclination 
for  the  study  of  law,  he  met  not  only  with  instant 
encouragement,  but  with  equally  prompt  offers  of 
assistance.  Here,  indeed,  was  the  stuff  out  of  which 
lawyers  at  their  best  are  made.  Rigid  honesty,  a 
judicial  temperament,  candor,  and  ambition,  as  well 
as  the  less  salient  qualities,  —  common  sense,  perse- 
verance, knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  keen  sym- 
pathy with  human  affairs,  —  of  all  these  the  aspir- 


38  HONEST    ABE 

ant  had  given  abundant  evidence.  Nor  could  he  be 
considered  lacking  in  what,  according  to  Lord  Eldon, 
constituted  the  prime  requisite  for  a  beginner  who 
sought  distinction  at  the  bar,  —  he  was  "not  worth 
a  shilling." 

This  last  attribute,  however,  hardly  commended 
itself  as  an  advantage  to  Lincoln's  troubled  mind. 
Poverty  alone  would  probably  not  have  stayed  his 
steps,  but  poverty  staggering  under  a  burden  la- 
belled "the  national  debt,"  —  there  was  a  prospect 
that  gave  him  pause.  What  did  he  owe  to  his  cred- 
itors, what  to  himself?  Pondering  over  these  ques- 
tions, he  carried  them  with  him  on  a  surveying  expe- 
dition. All  day  long  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  matter 
jostled  one  another  in  his  perplexed  brain,  without 
result.  Yet  the  time  for  a  decision  had  come.  On 
his  way  home,  he  swung  a  pair  of  tired  long  legs 
across  an  old  rail  fence,  and  sat  down  resolved  to 
stay  there  until  some  conclusion  should  be  reached. 
Lincoln's  destiny  truly  trembled  in  the  balance;  but 
a  controlling  thought,  decisive  enough  to  make  one 
side  outweigh  the  other,  still  failed  to  present  itself. 
In  this  dilemma  he  bethought  himself  of  a  way 
out,  —  a  way  as  freely  utilized  at  the  time,  along 
our  western  frontier,  as  it  has  been  among  the  chil- 
dren of  men  from  the  beginning  of  recorded  days  — 
the  appeal  to  chance.  Resting  his  Jacob's-staff  erect 
on  the  ground,  he  determined  to  be  guided  by  the 
direction  in  which  it  might  fall.  If  forward,  he  too 
would  go  forward  into  the  new  career  that  beckoned 
him  so  alluringly;  if  backward,  he  would  remain  a 
surveyor.  The  staff  fell  forward.56 


PINCHING    TIMES  39 

Lincoln  now  began  to  study,  if  we  may  adopt  his 
own  phrase,  "in  good  earnest."  Availing  himself  of 
Major  Stuart's  offer,  he  borrowed  the  necessary 
textbooks,  in  their  order,  from  that  gentleman's 
little  library  at  Springfield.  This  required  an  occa- 
sional journey  of  twenty  miles  or  more,  each  way, 
which  our  eager  student  appears  to  have  traveled, 
for  the  most  part,  on  foot.57  Days  so  spent,  how- 
ever, were  not  wholly  lost.  As  he  strode  across 
country  with  the  precious  volumes,  Abraham  made 
frequent  pauses  for  the  reading  of  successive  para- 
graphs, which  he  recited  aloud  as  he  went. 

Nor  were  these  studies  pursued  with  less  zeal  at 
home,  though,  in  truth,  there  seemed  but  few  waking 
hours  left  for  them.  Between  sessions  of  the  Legis- 
lature, which  customarily  made  heavy  drafts  upon 
its  members'  time,  Lincoln,  facing  the  problem  of 
how  to  live,  "still  mixed  in  the  surveying"  —  so 
runs  his  homely  expression  —  "to  pay  board  and 
clothing  bills."  Moreover,  the  postmastership  with 
its  occasional  duties,  as  well  as  sundry  bread-and- 
butter  jobs  of  a  less  exalted  character,  all  crowded 
their  demands  upon  his  attention.  Yet  some  scraps 
of  opportunity  remained.  Employing  these  dili- 
gently, by  day  and  by  night,  he  worked  his  way 
through  Stuart's  collection.58  To  such  good  pur- 
pose, in  fact,  did  he  study  the  Major's  books  that, 
before  the  list  was  exhausted,  though  "not  lawyer 
enough  to  hurt"  him,  Lincoln  had  acquired  skill 
enough  to  draw  up  bills  of  sale,  contracts,  deeds, 
mortgages,  and  the  like,  for  his  admiring  neighbors. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  represent  them  before  the 


40  HONEST    ABE 

local  justice,  in  sundry  suits  whereby  his  reputation 
was  much  enhanced,  but  not  his  income,  for  he  made 
no  charges  whatever  on  accounts  of  these  activities. 
This  seemingly  Quixotic  practice  of  working  with- 
out pay,  at  a  time  when  poverty  pressed  sharply, 
was  quite  in  keeping  with  the  young  man's  kindly 
nature,  and  his  biographer  is  tempted  to  make  the 
obvious  comment.  But  here  again,  the  hand  of  fact 
rudely  intervenes.  Brushing  away  the  gossamer 
web  of  romance,  it  points  to  "an  act  concerning 
attorneys  and  counselors  at  law"  in  the  statutes  of 
Illinois  that  expressly  prohibited  unlicensed  persons 
from  formally  practicing  at  the  bar  or  from  receiv- 
ing fees  for  legal  services.59  After  awhile,  however, 
this  disability,  as  far  as  it  concerned  the  New  Salem 
amateur,  was,  by  the  customary  steps,  removed. 
Before  his  second  year  of  preparation  had  elapsed, 
—  in  the  spring  of  1836,  —  the  necessary  certificate 
of  "good  moral  character"  had  been  entered  on  the 
records  of  the  Sangamon  County  Circuit  Court.  In 
the  following  autumn  a  license  was  issued,  and  later 
Abraham  Lincoln's  name  was  duly  inscribed  on  the 
roll  of  attorneys.60  So  "Honest  Abe,"  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight,  became  a  full-fledged  practitioner  in 
that  notable  company  of  scholars  that  have  fur- 
nished mankind  with  some  of  its  noblest  and,  at  the 
same  time,  with  some  of  its  most  pernicious  im- 
pulses. On  which  side  this  newcomer  would  exercise 
his  talents,  none  doubted  who  had  observed  him 
in  any  of  the  makeshift  occupations  whereby  he 
sustained  himself  while  toiling  up  the  circuitous 
path  that  led  to  the  portals  of  the  Supreme  Court. 


CHAPTER  II 

TRUTH   IN  LAW 

EARLY  one  spring  morning  long  ago, —  to  be 
precise,  on  the  I5th  day  of  April,  1837,  —  a  soli- 
tary horseman  might  have  been  seen  riding  along 
the  wagon  road  that  ran  from  New  Salem  to  Spring- 
field. He  was  obviously  not  one  of  G.  P.  R.  James's 
jaunty  heroes,  nor  yet  a  new- world  variation  on 
the  melancholy  Don,  but  romance  and  allegory 
alike  can  furnish  forth  few  figures  more  striking 
than  that  which  skirted  the  Illinois  prairies  on  this 
particular  forenoon.  The  traveler,  sad-eyed  and 
gaunt,  was  our  friend  Lincoln.  His  mount,  a  pony 
borrowed  from  Bowling  Green,  barely  stepped  high 
enough  to  keep  the  rider's  lank  extremities  from 
touching  the  ground.  Nor  did  the  picture  that  he 
presented  gain  in  grace,  as  one's  eye  rested  on  the 
man's  ill-fitting  garments.  Yet  they  were  the  best 
he  had,  for  the  bulging  saddle-bags  contained  — 
as  we  now  know  —  not  clothing,  but  a  few  articles 
of  underwear,  packed  in  with  that  well-thumbed  set 
of  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  several  volumes  of 
statute  law,  and  two  other  books.  Add  to  this  in- 
ventory a  small  amount  of  money  in  pocket,  — 
"about  seven  dollars,"  according  to  one  friend's 
estimate,  —  and  the  whole  sum  of  Lincoln's  own 
portable  assets  at  the  moment  is  told.  To  complete 
the  balance-sheet,  his  liabilities,  or,  more  accurately 


42  HONEST    ABE 

speaking,  the  evidences  thereof,  might  be  traced, 
line  for  line,  in  that  pensive  countenance.  The 
shadow  of  "the  national  debt,"  still  brooding  over 
all,  did  in  fact  overlay  his  prospective  earnings  as 
well  as  his  actual  means  and  leave  him  worse  than 
penniless.  It  was  in  the  hope  of  mending  these 
broken  fortunes  that  he  now  turned  his  back  on  the 
cherished  associations  of  New  Salem  and  rode  with 
his  scanty  belongings  to  Springfield. 

The  city  had  held  out  welcoming  hands.  Its 
leading  citizens  felt  grateful  to  Lincoln  for  effective 
aid  rendered  to  them  during  the  recent  session  of  the 
General  Assembly,  in  which  they  had  secured  a  vote 
whereby  the  seat  of  government  was  transferred 
from  Vandalia  to  Springfield;  and  his  faculty, 
withal,  for  engaging  the  affections  of  men  had  al- 
ready gained  him  several  stanch  friends  in  the  new 
capital. 

One  of  these  admirers,  William  Butler,  relates  how 
after  the  victory  at  Vandalia,  as  the  Sangamon  dele- 
gation were  returning  home,  Lincoln  had,  in  a  mo- 
ment of  depression,  spoken  to  him  of  his  gloomy 
prospects.  Without  money,  resources,  or  employ- 
ment, he  did  not  know,  as  he  said,  "where  to  earn 
even  a  week's  board."  *  The  listener's  ready  sym- 
pathy had  inspired  him  to  suggest  that  Lincoln 
would  prosper  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
Springfield;  and  before  they  parted  company,  But- 
ler had  fortified  the  proposal  with  a  tender  of  hospi- 
tality at  his  own  table,  until  the  promised  success 
should  be  attained.  In  response  to  this  generous 
offer,  as  well  as  to  other  invitations  hardly  less 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  43 

cordial,  the  member  from  New  Salem,  a  few  weeks 
thereafter,  came  to  make  his  home  in  the  bustling 
little  town,  just  quickening  with  a  sense  of  its 
recently  acquired  dignity. 

Having  hitched  his  pony  to  a  rack  in  the  public 
square,  Lincoln,  with  the  saddle-bags  over  his  arm, 
entered  the  general  store  of  Joshua  F.  Speed.  After 
an  exchange  of  greetings,  —  for  the  two  men  knew 
each  other,  —  the  newcomer  said:  "I  just  want  to 
put  my  saddle-pockets  down  here  till  I  put  up  my 
beast  at  Bill  Butler's,  then  I  want  to  see  you." 

Returning  in  a  short  time,  he  continued:  "Well, 
Speed,  I  Ve  been  to  Gorman's  and  got  a  single  bed- 
stead ;  now  you  figure  out  what  it  will  cost  for  a  tick, 
blankets,  and  the  rest." 

After  a  brief  interval  with  slate  and  pencil,  the 
required  furnishings  were  found  to  reach,  so  the 
storekeeper  announced,  a  total  of  seventeen  dollars. 

Lincoln's  countenance  fell,  as  he  exclaimed:  "I 
had  no  idea  it  would  cost  half  of  that !  It  is  probably 
cheap  enough,"  he  went  on,  "but  I  want  to  say  that, 
cheap  as  it  is,  I  have  not  the  money  to  pay.  But  if 
you  will  credit  me  until  Christmas,  and  my  experi- 
ment here  as  a  lawyer  is  a  success,  I  will  pay  you 
then.  If  I  fail  in  that  I  will  probably  never  be  able 
to  pay  you  at  all." 

There  was  a  note  of  dejection  in  the  speaker's 
voice  and  an  air  of  gloom  in  his  manner  that  deeply 
affected  the  man  behind  the  counter.  Recalling  the 
scene,  toward  the  latter  end  of  his  life,  Mr.  Speed 
declared,  "As  I  looked  up  at  him  I  thought  then, 
and  think  now,  that  I  never  saw  a  sadder  face." 


44  HONEST    ABE 

On  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  he  said  to  his 
prospective  customer:  — 

"You  seem  to  be  so  much  pained  at  contracting 
so  small  a  debt,  I  think  I  can  suggest  a  plan  by 
which  you  can  avoid  the  debt  and  at  the  same  time 
attain  your  end.  I  have  a  very  large  room,  and  a 
very  large  double  bed  in  it,  which  you  are  perfectly 
welcome  to  share  with  me  if  you  choose." 

"Where  is  your  room?"  asked  Lincoln. 

"Upstairs,"  answered  Speed,  pointing  to  the 
winding  steps  which  led  from  the  shop  to  the  story 
above. 

Without  another  word  his  questioner  took  up  the 
saddle-bags,  mounted  the  stairs,  and  coming  down 
again  in  a  trice,  announced  with  a  happy,  smiling 
face:  "Well,  Speed,  I'm  moved."  2 

Thus  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  two  friends,  — 
on  the  one  for  food,  on  the  other  for  a  bed,  —  Lin- 
coln began  his  life  in  Springfield. 

The  anxious  uncertainty  which  followed  was  of 
brief  duration.  Before  a  fortnight  had  elapsed,  Major 
Stuart  invited  his  old  comrade-in-arms  to  become 
his  partner.  This  offer,  it  is  perhaps  needless  to 
say,  was  eagerly  accepted;  and  the  modest  office 
above  the  county  court-room,  that  had  been  occu- 
pied by  the  senior  member  of  the  firm,  became  the 
headquarters  of  Stuart  and  Lincoln. 

After  they  were  well  under  way  occurred  a  little 
incident  which  nicely  exemplified  the  junior  part- 
ner's elemental  probity,  in  all  its  quaintness.  He 
had  ceased  to  be  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  upon 
the  discontinuance  of  that  office  about  a  year  before 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  45 

his  departure  from  the  place.  But  his  accounts  with 
the  Government  still  remained  unsettled,  and  he 
had  probably  forgotten  about  them,  when  an  agent 
of  the  Post-Office  Department  arrived  in  Spring- 
field, one  day,  with  a  draft  for  the  unpaid  balance. 
How  much  this  amounted  to  is  not  definitely  known. 
It  has  been  variously  reported  at  figures  ranging  all 
the  way  from  "seventeen  dollars  and  sixty  cents" 
to  "over  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars."  Nor  do  the 
official  records  at  Washington  throw  any  light  on  the 
matter,  for  the  books  covering  this  period  have  been 
destroyed.  The  claim,  whether  large  or  small,  how- 
ever, doubtless  called  for  a  greater  sum  than  Lincoln 
had  seemingly  brought  with  him  to  the  city.  His 
profound  poverty  and  distress  at  that  time  might 
well  lead  one  who  knew  these  circumstances  to 
wonder  how  the  required  funds  could  possibly  be 
forthcoming.  So  the  affair  impressed  his  friend,  Dr. 
A.  G.  Henry,  who  happened  to  be  present  when  the 
collector  came.  "  I  did  not  believe  he  had  the  money 
on  hand  to  meet  the  draft,"  said  the  doctor,  relating 
what  took  place;  "and  I  was  about  to  call  him  aside 
and  loan  him  the  money,  when  he  asked  the  agent  to 
be  seated  a  moment  while  he  went  over  to  his  trunk 
at  his  boarding-house,  and  returned  with  an  old  blue 
sock  with  a  quantity  of  silver  and  copper  coin  tied 
up  in  it.  Untying  the  sock,  he  poured  the  contents 
on  the  table  and  proceeded  to  count  the  coin,  which 
consisted  of  such  silver  and  copper  pieces  as  the 
country  people  were  then  in  the  habit  of  using  in 
paying  postage.  On  counting  it  up  there  was  found 
the  exact  amount,  to  a  cent,  of  the  draft,  and  in  the 


46  HONEST    ABE 

identical  coin  which  had  been  received.  As  the 
agent  departed,  Lincoln  remarked,  in  a  matter-of- 
fact  tone,  that  he  never  used  any  money  but  his 
own."  3 

This  excellent  rule  was  carried  to  an  extreme 
which  became,  at  times,  almost  childish.  It  seemed 
especially  so  in  Lincoln's  dealings  with  the  three 
friends, —  Kentuckians  all,  —  Stuart,  Logan,  and 
Herndon,  who  succeeded  one  another  as  his  part- 
ners.4 Yet,  if  one  may  judge  by  what  has  been  told 
concerning  them,  they  entered  readily  enough  into 
the  spirit  of  his  primitive  honesty.  Whenever  he 
received  a  fee,  an  immediate  division  followed.  If 
his  associate  happened  to  be  present,  that  gentle- 
man's part  was  handed  over  at  once.  But  if  a  pay- 
ment took  place  in  the  absence  of  the  other  from 
their  office,  or  while  Lincoln  was  on  circuit,  he 
wrapped  his  partner's  share  in  a  piece  of  paper 
marked,  "Doe  v.  Roe  —  Stuart's  half,"  or  "Logan's 
half,"  or  "Herndon's  half,"  as  the  case  might  be; 
and  at  the  first  opportunity  thereafter  the  identical 
money,  as  originally  divided,  was  delivered  to  its 
rightful  owner. 

In  the  case  of  one  uncommonly  large  fee,  how- 
ever, even  this  method  apparently  failed  to  satisfy 
his  eagerness  for  prompt  settlements.  When  he 
collected  his  bill  of  forty-eight  hundred  dollars,  on 
a  judgment  against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company,  Lincoln  telegraphed  to  Herndon  that  he 
wished  him  to  remain  at  their  office  until  the  return 
train  reached  Springfield.  It  was  night  when  he 
arrived,  and  found  his  partner  awaiting  him.  Count- 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  47 

ing  out  Herndon's  portion  of  the  receipts,  with  a 
characteristic  little  jest,  he  had  the  gratification  of 
placing  the  money  where  it  belonged  before  they 
slept. 

To  infer  from  all  this  that  Lincoln  had  any  aver- 
sion for  the  keeping  of  accounts,  or  that  there  were 
no  fee-books  in  which  these  transactions  were  re- 
corded, is  wide  of  the  facts.  He  did  keep  books  and 
properly,  too.6  It  was  in  the  handling  of  payments 
that  he  differed  from  many  honorable  men  around 
him.  He  had  simply  set  up  a  financial  creed  of  his 
own,  as  it  were,  according  to  which  the  money  of 
another  was  sacred  from  being  used  by  him,  even 
temporarily,  —  yes,  sacred  from  any  act  which 
might  cause  it  to  lose,  for  a  moment,  its  distinctive 
character  as  the  property  of  that  other. 

A  lawyer  conscientious  to  such  a  degree  toward 
his  partners  would  hardly  be  less  so  in  the  treatment 
of  his  clients.  And  they,  for  their  part,  were  quick  to 
appreciate  the  fact.  One  old  chronicler  records  with 
warm  approval  how  Lincoln,  at  the  very  outset, 
gained  the  confidence  of  the  business  men.6  As 
traffic  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  generally  based 
on  long-time  credit,  merchants  often  found  it  neces- 
sary to  commit  the  collection  of  their  overdue  notes 
to  local  attorneys.  Some  of  these  gentlemen  were 
so  dilatory  in  making  returns  that  their  clients,  not 
infrequently,  had  as  much  difficulty  getting  the 
money  from  them  as  from  their  customers.  Lincoln 
set  a  different  pace.  As  soon  as  such  payments 
reached  him  they  were,  in  every  instance,  turned 
over,  without  delay,  to  their  rightful  owners  who, 


48  HONEST    ABE 

by  the  way,  lost  no  opportunity  of  proclaiming  their 
satisfaction.7 

But  it  was  in  the  handling  of  more  important  mat- 
ters that  Lincoln  evinced  how  scrupulous  could  be 
an  attorney's  attention  to  the  true  interests  of  those 
who  sought  legal  aid.  His  office  became,  as  should 
every  good  lawyer's,  a  court  of  conciliation ;  and  when 
people  came  to  him  with  their  troubles,  he  usually 
tried,  in  the  beginning,  to  bring  about  amicable  ad- 
justments. These  endeavors  went  beyond  a  merely 
perfunctory  observance  of  the  time-honored  dictum 
that  it  is  a  lawyer's  duty  to  prevent  not  to  pro- 
mote litigation.8  Addressing  himself,  in  the  notes 
for  a  lecture,  to  beginners  at  the  bar,  he  wrote,  after 
perhaps  fifteen  years  of  legal  experience:  "Discour- 
age litigation.  Persuade  your  neighbors  to  compro- 
mise whenever  you  can.  Point  out  to  them  how  the 
nominal  winner  is  often  a  real  loser  —  in  fees,  ex- 
penses, and  waste  of  time.  As  a  peacemaker  the 
lawyer  has  a  superior  opportunity  of  being  a  good 
man.  There  will  stilt  be  business  enough."  9 

How  earnestly  Lincoln  labored  to  reck  his  own 
rede,  judges,  attorneys,  and  other  officers  of  the  law 
agreed  in  attesting.  They  declared,  according  to 
one  who  canvassed  their  views,  that  "more  disputes 
were  settled"  by  his  advice  "out  of  the  courts  than 
in  them";  and,  what  is  perhaps  of  greater  impor- 
tance, it  was  added  that "  as  a  rule,  these  settlements 
left  the  litigants  friends."  10  Quarrels,  ranging  over 
the  whole  field  of  human  differences,  from  an  alter- 
cation about  a  line  fence  to  the  unhappy  prelimi- 
naries of  a  divorce  suit,  were  smoothed  out  —  if 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  49 

one  may  credit  the  current  anecdotes  —  under  his 
soothing  touch.11 

But  were  the  mediations  of  this  peacemaker  satis- 
factory in  every  instance?  Did  the  contestants  who 
had  been  brought  to  lay  their  claims  before  him  uni- 
formly submit  to  his  decisions  with  good  grace? 
As  though  to  answer  these  questions  one  of  his  most 
brilliant  contemporaries  at  the  bar,  Leonard  Swett, 
once  said :  — 

"There  is  something  remarkable  about  these 
Lincoln  settlements  and  arbitrations.  The  parties 
always  submit.  They  seem  to  think  they  have  to 
submit,  which  is  very  little  short  of  the  power  he 
exercises  over  a  jury,  before  which  these  arbitrated 
disputes  would  otherwise  come.  He  is  so  positive 
and  final  with  them  as  to  make  his  judgment  equiva- 
lent to  a  settlement  in  court.  In  all  my  observations 
of  these  cases,  only  one  man  objected  seriously  and 
threatened  to  take  his  case  into  court.  It  happened 
he  was  one  of  Lincoln's  clients;  but  when  the  man 
objected  to  Lincoln's  arbitration,  and  said,  'I  will 
take  the  case  into  court,'  Lincoln  gave  him  one  of 
his  deep-searching  looks,  and  said,  'Very  well,  Jim, 
I  will  take  the  case  against  you  for  nothing.'  But 
that  was  unnecessary,  for  the  penetrating  look  had 
settled  Jim  and  his  case."  12 

On  other  occasions,  even  when  there  were  no  arbi- 
trations, Lincoln  could  not  wholly  divest  himself  of 
the  judicial  spirit.  He  required  those  who  sought 
his  aid  to  come  —  as  to  the  judgment-seat  —  with 
clean  hands.  A  client,  favored  at  the  outset  by  some 
improper  advantage,  could  hope  for  his  services  only 


50  HONEST    ABE 

after  the  balance  had  been  redeemed  by  some  ade- 
quate concession.  Perhaps  the  best  case  in  point  is 
that  of  a  widow  who  retained  Lincoln  and  Herndon 
for  the  purpose  of  looking  into  certain  alleged  tax 
liens  on  a  valuable  piece  of  land  to  which  she  held 
title.  While  making  a  search  of  the  records  the  at- 
torneys came  upon  a  description  in  one  of  the  deeds 
that  appeared  to  require  verification.  Lincoln  went 
to  the  place  with  the  necessary  instruments  and  sur- 
veyed the  ground  himself.  He  found  a  material  dis- 
crepancy. It  was  evident  that  Charles  Matheney, 
a  former  grantor,  selling  the  tract  at  a  certain  price 
per  acre,  had,  by  an  error  in  the  description,  con- 
veyed more  land  than  had  been  paid  for.  These 
facts  were  laid  before  the  widow,  with  a  carefully 
made  calculation  showing  how  much,  in  the  opinion 
of  her  attorneys,  was  due  to  Matheney's  estate  by 
reason  of  this  erroneous  conveyance.  Their  sugges- 
tion, however,  that  she  make  this  restitution  met 
with  strenuous  objection.  Only  after  they  had  de- 
clined to  continue  as  her  representatives,  unless  she 
did  so,  was  the  required  sum  reluctantly  placed  in 
the  firm's  hands.  The  senior  member  himself  divided 
it  into  a  number  of  smaller  sums,  which  he  distrib- 
uted, in  due  form,  among  the  Matheney  heirs.13 

All  refractory  litigants  were  of  course  not  amen- 
able to  reason.  At  times  when  persuasion  or  threats 
failed,  strategy  came  into  play.  One  client  who  in- 
sisted on  bringing  an  unseemly  action  was  circum- 
vented by  Lincoln  in  an  amusing  manner.  Here  is 
the  story  as  it  was  told  by  Gibson  W.  Harris,  a  clerk 
at  the  time  in  that  now  famous  law-office:  — 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  51 

"A  crack-brained  attorney  who  lived  in  Spring- 
field, supported  mainly,  as  I  understood,  by  the 
other  lawyers  of  the  place,  became  indebted,  in  the 
sum  of  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents,  to  a  wealthy  citi- 
zen of  the  county,  a  recent  comer.  The  creditor 
failing,  after  repeated  efforts,  to  collect  the  amount 
due  him,  came  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  asked  him  to 
bring  suit.  Mr.  Lincoln  explained  the  man's  condi- 
tion and  circumstances,  and  advised  his  client  to  let 
the  matter  rest;  but  the  creditor's  temper  was  up, 
and  he  insisted  on  having  suit  brought.  Again  Mr. 
Lincoln  urged  him  to  let  the  matter  drop,  adding, 
'You  can  make  nothing  out  of  him,  and  it  will  cost 
you  a  good  deal  more  than  the  debt  to  bring  suit.' 
The  creditor  was  still  determined  to  have  his  way, 
and  threatened  to  seek  some  other  attorney  who 
would  be  more  willing  to  take  charge  of  the  matter 
than  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  to  be.  Mr.  Lincoln  then 
said,  'Well,  if  you  are  determined  that  suit  shall  be 
brought,  I  will  bring  it;  but  my  charge  will  be  ten 
dollars.'  The  money  was  paid  him,  and  peremptory 
orders  were  given  that  the  suit  be  brought  that  day. 
After  the  client's  departure,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  out  of 
the  office,  returning  in  about  an  hour  with  an  amused 
look  on  his  face.  I  asked  what  pleased  him,  and  he 
replied,  'I  brought  suit  against  Blank,  and  then 
hunted  him  up,  told  him  what  I  had  done,  handed 
him  half  of  the  ten  dollars,  and  we  went  over  to  the 
squire's  office.  He  confessed  judgment  and  paid  the 
bill.'  Mr.  Lincoln  added  that  he  did  n't  see  any  other 
way  to  make  things  satisfactory  for  his  client  as 
well  as  the  rest  of  the  parties."14 


52  HONEST    ABE 

This  aptitude  for  disposing  of  quarrels  so  as  to 
satisfy  all  concerned  became  generally  recognized 
at  the  bar.  Lincoln's  fellow  attorneys,  conceding  the 
disinterested  skill  with  which  he  harmonized  the 
discordant  elements  of  a  matter  in  controversy,  at 
times  cooperated  with  him  by  persuading  their 
clients  to  accept  his  good  offices.  A  few  of  these 
colleagues  even  went  further.  When  consulted  con- 
cerning certain  cases  in  which  Lincoln  had  been 
retained  on  the  other  side,  they  emulated  his  self- 
denial,  and  before  accepting  any  fees  advised  that 
the  settlement  of  these  affairs  be  left  wholly  in  his 
hands. 

A  typical  instance  was  related,  several  years  ago, 
by  Henry  Rice,  a  prominent  resident  of  New  York. 
During  his  younger  days,  while  in  business  at  Jack- 
sonville, Illinois,  he  was  requested  by  some  Cincin- 
nati merchants  to  recommend  a  reputable  lawyer, 
who  might  look  after  their  interests  in  the  matter  of 
a  Decatur  house  that  had  made  what  they  regarded 
as  a  fraudulent  failure.  Mr.  Rice  promptly  sug- 
gested Abraham  Lincoln,  and  meeting  a  committee 
of  the  creditors  by  appointment  in  Springfield,  he 
guided  them  to  that  attorney's  office.  The  ensuing 
interview  was  brief.  Hardly  had  the  spokesman  en- 
tered upon  the  purpose  of  their  visit,  when  Lincoln, 
raising  his  long  arm  high  in  the  air,  interrupted  him 
with  the  words :  — 

"Stop!  Gentlemen,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  can- 
not take  your  claims.  Just  before  you  entered  I 
received  a  message  engaging  me  to  act  for  the  Deca- 
tur concern." 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  53 

When  asked  whom  the  creditors  had  better  re- 
tain, he  suggested  one  of  his  most  active  political 
opponents  —  that  able  lawyer  and  party  leader, 
John  A.  McClernand.  To  him  the  committee  went. 
He  heard  them  attentively,  and  then  said :  — 

"If  that  man  has  planned  to  go  through  bank- 
ruptcy without  paying  you  any  part  of  his  debts,  he 
has  chosen  the  poorest  lawyer  in  Illinois  to  do  the 
job.  I  advise  you  to  return  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
state  your  whole  case  as  frankly  as  you  have  stated 
it  to  me.  He  is  just  the  man  to  settle  this  for  you. 
Go  back  and  put  the  whole  matter  into  his  hands." 

They  did  so.  Mr.  Lincoln,  after  hearing  their 
statement,  assured  them  that  no  injustice  would  be 
done.  More  than  that,  he  agreed  to  confer  with  his 
client  and  arrange  an  equitable  settlement.  In  an 
uncommonly  short  time  the  creditors,  to  their  joy, 
received  seventy- five  cents  on  the  dollar;  the  heavy 
expense,  as  well  as  the  delays  usually  involved  in 
such  failures,  were  averted,  and  the  debtor  was 
enabled  to  resume  business,  with  a  name  free  from 
the  stain  of  bankruptcy.15 

These  compromises  between  opposing  interests 
constituted  —  it  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  say  — 
only  a  part  of  Lincoln's  legal  activities.  Accepting 
as  a  matter  of  course  many  cases  that  could  not  be 
arbitrated  or  settled  offhand,  he  conducted  them, 
with  varying  fortunes,  through  their  several  stages 
in  the  courts.  But  now  and  then  came  proposals  for 
litigation  which,  according  to  his  code,  admitted 
of  neither  suit  nor  compromise.  They  belonged  to 
that  class  of  causes  once  wittily  characterized  by 


£4  HONEST    ABE 

Erskine,  in  the  famous  opinion,  —  "This  action  will 
not  lie,  unless  the  witnesses  do."  Such  matters  re- 
ceived short  shrift  at  Lincoln's  hands.  When  a  pro- 
spective client  was  in  the  wrong  he  bluntly  told  him 
so.  Nor  did  he  hesitate  to  treat  old  patrons  and 
friends,  painful  as  this  must  at  times  have  been,  with 
the  same  embarrassing  frankness.  "You  have  no 
case;  better  settle,"  was  heard  in  his  office,  over  and 
over  again.  Stripping  a  discreditable  story  of  its 
sophistries,  he  pointed  out  the  sharp  practice  or 
worse  in  which  those  who  concerned  themselves 
with  the  affair  would  inevitably  become  involved, 
refused  the  proffered  retainer,  and  urged  the  liti- 
gant to  withdraw  from  an  untenable  position.16 
This  was  Lincoln's  course  toward  one  of  his  early 
neighbors,  Henry  McHenry,  when  that  person  de- 
sired him  to  bring  an  action  of  doubtful  propriety. 
Declining  to  touch  the  case  on  the  ground  that  his 
client  was  not  strictly  in  the  right,  our  attorney 
said:  "You  can  give  the  other  party  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  and  perhaps  beat  him,  but  you  had  better 
let  the  suit  alone."  17 

So,  too,  Lincoln  was  careful  —  as  he  himself  ex- 
pressed it  —  not  to  "stir  up  litigation,"18  or  to  do 
anything  that  might  encourage  the  vexatious  and 
costly  suits  which  often  arise  over  the  administra- 
tion of  estates. 

' '  Who  was  your  guardian  ?  "  he  asked  a  young  man 
after  weighing  his  inconsistent  complaint  that  a 
part  of  the  property  bequeathed  to  him  had  been 
wrongfully  withheld. 

"Enoch  Kingsbury,"  was  the  answer. 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  55 

"  I  know  Mr.  Kingsbury,"  said  Lincoln,  "  and  he 
is  not  the  man  to  have  cheated  you  out  of  a  cent; 
I  can't  take  the  case,  and  I  advise  you  to  drop  the 
subject."19 

In  the  same  conscientious  spirit  more  important 
opportunities  for  employment,  holding  forth  pros- 
pects of  generous  fees,  were  turned  away  from  Lin- 
coln's door.  His  associates  at  the  bar  have  recorded 
a  few  instances.  One  of  these  is  related  by  Judge 
Samuel  C.  Parks.  He  recalls  that  in  a  matter  en- 
titled "Harris  and  Jones  versus  Buckles,"  the  plain- 
tiffs, having  employed  him  and  Ward  Hill  Lamon 
as  their  attorneys,  desired  them  to  secure  Lincoln's 
services  also.  His  reply  was  characteristic:  "Tell 
Harris  it's  no  use  to  waste  money  on  me  in  that 
case;  he'll  get  beat."  20 

Among  the  retainers  so  declined,  most  notable, 
perhaps,  was  that  of  Governor  Joel  A.  Matteson, 
who,  after  his  retirement  from  office,  stood  accused 
of  having  defrauded  the  State  of  Illinois  by  reissuing 
redeemed  canal  scrip  and  applying  the  proceeds  to 
his  own  use.  The  alleged  thefts  amounted,  in  the 
end,  with  interest,  to  about  a  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars.  Matteson's  fortune,  as  well  as  his  good  re- 
pute, and  perhaps  his  very  liberty,  were  at  stake. 
He  soaght  to  gather  around  him  a  formidable  array 
of  counsel.  Having  engaged  the  eminent  lawyers 
Benjamin  S.  Edwards  and  Major  John  T.  Stuart  for 
his  defense,  he  tried  likewise  to  retain  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  another  of  that  gentleman's  former 
partners,  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan.  Both  these 
last-mentioned  attorneys,  however,  after  carefully 


56  HONEST    ABE 

considering  the  facts  submitted  to  them,  reached 
the  conclusion  that  the  distinguished  defendant  was 
guilty.  They  conceded  his  right  to  such  protection 
as  one  reputable  advocate  might  properly  afford 
him,  but  neither  of  them  was  willing  to  join  a  power- 
ful combination  of  legal  experts  that  should  have  for 
its  object  the  culprit's  escape  from  punishment.  So, 
without  conferring  on  the  subject,  indeed  without 
each  other's  knowledge,  they  respectively  declined 
to  be  concerned  in  the  matter.  Their  course,  it 
should  be  added,  was  justified  before  many  months 
had  elapsed  by  Matteson's  virtual  confession  and 
by  a  heavy  judgment  rendered  against  him  in  the 
Circuit  Court.21 

But  Lincoln's  refusals  to  engage  his  services  in 
actions  of  which  he  did  not  approve  went  still  fur- 
ther. A  cause  to  enlist  his  interest  had  to  be  intrin- 
sically right  as  well  as  technically  so.  He  ran  no 
subtlety  shop.  What  has  been  termed  "law  hon- 
esty" fell  far  short,  now  and  then,  in  his  opinion,  of 
being  genuine  honesty.  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  any  leading  practitioner  of  the  Illinois  bar 
felt  more  keenly  than  he,  at  times,  that  "strictest 
law  is  oft  the  highest  wrong." 

How  far,  on  such  occasions,  the  man  in  him  got 
the  better  of  the  lawyer  was  illustrated  by  the  clos- 
ing words  of  an  interview  overheard  one  morning  in 
his  office.  Mr.  Lincoln,  seated  at  the  baize-covered 
table  near  the  center  of  the  room,  had  been  listening 
attentively,  for  some  time,  to  a  person  who  addressed 
him  earnestly  and  in  a  low  tone  of  voice.  Suddenly 
the  attorney  interrupted  the  speaker  with  these 
words  that  rang  out  through  the  place:  — 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  57 

"Yes,  we  can  doubtless  gain  your  case  for  you. 
We  can  set  a  whole  neighborhood  at  loggerheads. 
We  can  distress  a  widowed  mother  and  her  six  father- 
less children,  and  thereby  get  for  you  six  hundred 
dollars  to  which  you  seem  to  have  a  legal  claim ;  but 
which  rightfully  belongs,  it  appears  to  me,  as  much 
to  the  woman  and  her  children  as  it  does  to  you. 
You  must  remember  that  some  things  legally  right 
are  not  morally  right.  We  shall  not  take  your  case, 
but  will  give  you  a  little  advice  for  which  we  will 
charge  you  nothing.  You  seem  to  be  a  sprightly, 
energetic  man;  we  would  advise  you  to  try  your 
hand  at  making  six  hundred  dollars  in  some  other 
way." 22 

On  another  occasion,  as  a  student  in  the  office 
recalls,  Lincoln  sat  gazing  at  the  ceiling  while  a 
client  unfolded  the  shabby  details  of  a  proposed 
suit.  When  the  narrative  was  finished,  the  listener 
swung  around  in  his  chair  and  exclaimed :  — 

"Well,  you  have  a  pretty  good  case  in  technical 
law,  but  a  pretty  bad  one  in  equity  and  justice. 
You'll  have  to  get  some  other  fellow  to  win  this  case 
for  you.  I  could  n't  do  it.  All  the  time  while  stand- 
ing talking  to  that  jury,  I'd  be  thinking,  'Lincoln, 
you're  a  liar';  and  I  believe  I  should  forget  myself 
and  say  it  out  loud."  23 

This  last  avowal  discloses  a  striking  justification 
—  if  justification  is  needed  —  of  "Honest  Abe's" 
course  in  rejecting  clients  whom  he  believed  to  be  in 
the  wrong.  Whatever  claims  they  may,  on  general 
principles,  have  had  to  his  services  were  probably  not 
pressed  after  such  an  acknowledgment.  Even  our 


58  HONEST    ABE 

legal  casuists,  piling  high  the  reasons  why  it  is  an 
attorney's  duty  to  appear  on  either  side  of  a  cause, 
right  or  wrong,  —  and  some  of  the  arguments  are 
convincing  enough,  —  would  doubtless  hesitate  to 
enforce  their  rule  in  the  case  of  a  lawyer  who  thus 
frankly  admits  that,  when  his  pleadings  happen  to 
be  at  variance  with  his  conscience,  he  finds  himself 
unable  to  control  his  powers.  The  greater  those 
powers,  the  greater  would  seem  the  danger  to  the 
side  that  had  engaged  them,  if  they  should  balk. 
For  Pegasus  unwillingly  in  the  traces  might  well  be 
expected  to  make  more  trouble  than  a  whole  team 
of  refractory  plough-horses.  And  Lincoln,  keenly 
alive  to  his  peculiar  limitations,  realized  that  unless 
he  himself  believed  in  the  justice  of  a  contention,  his 
advocacy  thereof  —  half-hearted,  perhaps  fatally 
ingenuous  —  would  do  the  case  more  harm  than 
good. 

In  short,  he  was  too  "perversely  honest,"  as  one 
old  acquaintance  phrased  it,  to  be  of  any  use  to  a 
client  who  was  not  honest.  The  man's  whole  make- 
up harbored  no  trace  of  that  mercenary,  free-lance 
spirit  which  can  fight  for  hire  under  one  banner,  as 
valiantly  as  under  another  —  in  a  base  cause  as  well 
as  in  a  righteous  one.  Nor  did  pride  of  intellect, 
exulting  in  uncommon  forensic  dexterity,  betray 
him  into  that  habit  of  mind  which  derives  its  keen- 
est gratification  from  making  "the  worse  appear  the 
better  reason."  And  all  his  skill  would  have  failed 
him  here  had  he  tried  to  be  otherwise.  For  if  there 
was  one  quality  more  than  another  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  lacked,  it  must  have  been  the  kind  of  ver- 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  59 

satility  of  which  Cardinal  Duperron  boasted,  when 
he  said,  in  response  to  a  compliment  by  King  Henry 
III,  on  the  convincing  eloquence  with  which  the 
prelate  had  proved  the  existence  of  the  Deity: 
"Sire,  I  can  now  turn  about,  if  it  pleases  Your  Ma- 
jesty, and  prove  to  you,  with  arguments  equally 
irrefutable,  that  there  is  no  God." 

Lincoln's  intellect  was  of  a  wholly  different  cast. 
It  had  been  devoted  to  the  truth,  with  single-minded 
fealty,  from  boyhood.  At  a  time  when  children's 
thoughts  usually  run  on  play,  his  had  begun  to  puzzle 
out  the  problems  of  life.  Nothing  but  the  facts 
would  content  him.  And  whether  he  acquired  them 
by  observation,  dug  them  out  of  books,  or  picked 
them  up  from  chance  conversations,  there  was  no 
rest  until  they  had  been  brought  well  within  the 
circle  of  his  comprehension.  Referring,  at  a  maturer 
period,  to  this  trait,  he  said:  — 

"Among  my  earliest  recollections  I  remember 
how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when 
anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  under- 
stand. I  don't  think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything 
else  in  my  life.  But  that  always  disturbed  my  tem- 
per, and  has  ever  since.  I  can  remember  going  to  my 
little  bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an 
evening  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part 
of  the  night  walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to 
make  out  what  was  the  exact  meaning  of  some  of 
their,  to  me,  dark  sayings.  I  could  not  sleep,  though 
I  often  tried  to,  when  I  got  on  such  a  hunt  after  an 
idea,  until  I  caught  it;  and  when  I  thought  I  had 
got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over 


60  HONEST    ABE 

and  over,  —  until  I  had  put  it  in  language  plain 
enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  compre- 
hend. This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me,  and  it 
has  stuck  by  me;  for  I  am  never  easy  now,  when  I 
am  handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it  North, 
and  bounded  it  South,  and  bounded  it  East,  and 
bounded  it  West." 24 

This  eagerness  to  see  every  side  of  a  subject  made 
trouble,  at  times,  for  the  juvenile  inquirer.  His 
Cousin  Dennis  has  illustrated  this,  in  a  character- 
istic little  thumb-nail  sketch.  Chatting  about  those 
early  days,  in  his  old  age,  Mr.  Hanks  said :  — 

"Sometimes  a  preacher,  'r  a  circuit-ridin'  jedge, 
'r  lyyer,  'r  a  stump-speakin'  polytician,  'r  a  school- 
teacher 'd  come  along.  When  one  o'  them  rode  up, 
Tom'd  go  out  an'  say,  —  "Light,  stranger,'  like  it 
was  polite  to  do.  Then  Abe  'd  come  lopin*  out  on  his 
long  legs,  throw  one  over  the  top  rail  and  begin 
firm'  questions.  Tom'd  tell  him  to  quit,  but  it 
did  n't  do  no  good,  so  Tom  'd  have  to  bang  him  on 
the  side  o'  his  head  with  his  hat.  Abe'd  go  off  a 
spell  an'  fire  sticks  at  the  snow-birds,  an'  whistle  like 
he  did  n't  keer.  'Pap  thinks  it  ain't  polite  to  ask 
folks  so  many  questions,'  he'd  say.  'I  reckon  I  was 
n't  born  to  be  polite,  Denny.  Thar's  so  darned 
many  things  I  want  to  know.  An'  how  else  am  I 
goin'  to  git  to  know  'em?'"  25 

The  habit  of  asking  questions  remained  with  Lin- 
coln to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  Frankly  declaring 
himself  ignorant  concerning  many  things,  on  many 
occasions,  he  laid  his  face  low,  as  the  Persians  say,  at 
the  threshold  of  truth.  Indeed,  no  forceful  character 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  61 

in  recent  history  was  so  free  from  pride  of  mentality, 
so  willing  to  admit  that  he  did  not  understand  some 
important  matter,  or  that,  perchance,  a  trivial  one 
had  escaped  his  knowledge.  Taking  stock  of  him- 
self, during  middle-life,  for  an  inquiring  biographer, 
he  summed  up  his  intellectual  attainments  in  two 
words,  —  "education  defective."  To  a  young  friend 
who,  at  a  still  later  period,  pointed  out  an  error  of 
speech,  he  called  himself  "deplorably  ignorant." 
When  an  opponent  taunted  him  with  having  "care- 
fully written"  an  address,  he  replied  before  his  next 
audience:  "  I  admit  that  it  was.  I  am  not  a  master 
of  language.  I  have  not  a  fine  education." 

And  when  he  had  composed  a  certain  notable 
letter,  he  laid  it  before  a  learned  neighbor,  with  the 
words:  "I  think  it  is  all  right,  but  grammar,  you 
know,  is  not  my  stronghold ;  and  as  several  persons 
will  probably  read  that  little  thing,  I  wish  you  would 
look  it  over  carefully,  and  see  if  it  needs  doctoring 
anywhere." 

Perhaps  we  should  add  that  the  missive  did  need  a 
touch  of  "doctoring,"  and  that  the  writer  submitted 
to  the  treatment  with  good  grace.  Nor  was  he  less 
ingenuous  on  other  occasions.  One  day  in  court  a 
lawyer,  quoting  a  Latin  maxim,  bowed  to  him  and 
said:  "That  is  so,  is  it  not,  Mr.  Lincoln?" 

To  which  he  answered:  " If  that's  Latin,  you  had 
better  call  another  witness." 

So,  during  a  visit  by  a  distinguished  company, 
when  one  gentleman  turned  to  another  and  repeated 
a  quotation  from  the  ancient  classics,  Lincoln 
leaned  forward  in  his  chair,  looked  inquiringly  at 


62  HONEST    ABE 

them,  and  remarked,  with  a  smile:  "Which,  I  sup- 
pose you  are  both  aware,  /  do  not  understand." 

Equally  free  from  false  pretense  concerning  his 
work  at  the  bar,  he  would  turn  the  compliment  of  an 
admirer  with  some  such  phrase  as,  "Oh,  I  am  only  a 
mast- fed  lawyer." 

The  same  spirit  of  candid  self-appraisal  was  strik- 
ingly manifested  during  the  McCormick  reaper  suit, 
in  which  Lincoln,  with  other  lawyers,  had  been  re- 
tained for  the  defense.  When  the  cause  came  to  trial, 
he  found  himself  elbowed,  so  to  say,  out  of  a  leading 
part  by  Edwin  M.  Stan  ton.  Yet  while  listening  to 
the  argument  of  the  colleague  who  had  thus  dis- 
placed him,  he  forgot  his  disappointment,  keen 
though  it  was,  in  his  admiration  of  the  great  advo- 
cate's masterly  plea.  Indeed,  Lincoln  is  said  to  have 
been  so  moved  that  he  hardly  repressed  his  enthusi- 
asm in  open  court ;  and  upon  the  conclusion  of  the 
address,  he  remarked  to  one  of  the  clients  who  had 
retained  him :  "Emerson,  it  would  have  been  a  great 
mistake  if  I  had  spoken  in  this  case.  I  did  not  fully 
understand  it."  26 

These  confessions,  under  all  their  varying  circum- 
stances, showed  how  honest  the  man  could  be.  The 
simple  words,  "  I  do  not  know,"  are  among  the  hard- 
est to  pronounce  in  the  language.  Still  he  must  use 
them  freely  who  would  find  the  key  to  Pilate's  age- 
worn  riddle,  and  behold  the  fair  vision  of  Truth, 
at  last,  face  to  face.  So  believed  this  conscientious 
lawyer,  who  realized,  however,  that  here  his  duty 
began  rather  than  ended.  For  it  was  not  until  all 
the  questions  in  a  legal  tangle  had  been  answered 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  63 

and  all  the  perplexities  straightened  out,  not  until 
he  had  gone  at  the  very  heart  of  a  problem,  —  to  use 
his  own  expression,  —  "like  a  dog  at  a  root,"  and 
laid  the  facts  bare  to  the  last  fiber,  that  Lincoln's 
intellectual  probity  arose  to  its  full  stature.  Then 
all  concessions  were  at  an  end.  His  logical  mind, 
a  marvel  of  close  and  clear  thinking,  progressed 
through  a  subject,  step  for  step,  from  premise  to 
conclusion,  with  unerring  precision.  There  was  no 
retreat,  no  dodging,  no  attempt  to  evade  or  color  the 
inevitable  result.  If  that  result  stood  in  the  way  of 
his  desires,  so  much  the  worse  for  those  desires.  He 
sought  the  truth  for  the  truth's  sake.  Having  fol- 
lowed a  chain  of  reasoning  from  start  to  finish,  with 
an  utter  disregard  of  personal  interests,  —  his  own, 
no  less  than  those  of  others,  —  he  was  as  loyal  to 
the  outcome  as  he  had  been  to  the  mental  process 
whereby  it  had  been  reached.  Lincoln  never  appar- 
ently resorted  to  the  meanest  of  pettifogging  —  that 
of  a  man  at  the  bar  of  his  own  conscience.  As  he 
could  not  tolerate  a  fallacious  premise,  he  could  not 
argue  to  a  false  conclusion.  Utterly  unable  to  de- 
ceive himself,  he  was  incapable  of  deceiving  others ; 
and  once  an  essential  truth  had  entered  into  his  con- 
sciousness, there  was  not  room  enough  in  that  whole 
gigantic  frame,  if  he  spoke  at  all,  for  its  concealment. 
How  marked  were  these  characteristics  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  they  evoked  comment 
among  lawyers  and  judges  who  are  credited  them- 
selves with  a  high  standard  of  professional  honor. 
David  Davis,  who  presided  for  nearly  fourteen 
years  over  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit  of  Illinois,  in 


64  HONEST    ABE 

which  Lincoln  tried  most  of  his  cases,  said  concern- 
ing this  upright  advocate:  "The  framework  of  his 
mental  and  moral  being  was  honesty,  and  a  wrong 
cause  was  poorly  defended  by  him.  The  ability, 
which  some  eminent  lawyers  possess,  of  explaining 
away  the  bad  points  of  a  cause  by  ingenious  sophis- 
try, was  denied  him.  In  order  to  bring  into  full 
activity  his  great  powers,  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  be  convinced  of  the  right  and  justice  of  the 
matter  which  he  advocated.1' 27 

Similar  comments  have  been  made  by  the  Judges 
of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court,  in  which,  for  a  period 
of  twenty  years,  he  had  an  unusual  number  of  cases. 
What  these  experienced  jurists  thought  concerning 
this  aspect  of  Lincoln's  nature  was  summed  up,  so  to 
say,  by  Judge  Caton,  in  the  single  sentence:  "He 
seemed  entirely  ignorant  of  the  art  of  deception  or  of 
dissimulation."  28 

To  which  should  be  added  the  observations  made 
by  Judge  Thomas  Drummond,  from  the  bench  of 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  at  Chicago:  "Such 
was  the  transparent  candor  and  integrity  of  his  na- 
ture that  he  could  not  well  or  strongly  argue  a  side 
or  a  cause  that  he  thought  wrong.  Of  course  he  felt 
it  his  duty  to  say  what  could  be  said,  and  to  leave 
the  decision  to  others;  but  there  could  be  seen  in 
such  cases  the  inward  struggle  of  his  own  mind."  29 

Lincoln's  commendable  weakness  in  this  respect 
was  equally  patent  to  his  associates  at  the  bar.  Few 
of  them,  if  any,  knew  him  so  well  as  Leonard  Swett, 
who  touches  on  his  friend's  inability  to  be  otherwise 
than  intellectually  honest,  in  these  words:  "If  his 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  65 

own  mind  failed  to  be  satisfied,  he  had  little  power 
to  satisfy  anybody  else.  He  never  made  a  sophisti- 
cal argument  in  his  life,  and  never  could  make  one. 
I  think  he  was  of  less  real  aid  in  trying  a  thoroughly 
bad  case  than  any  man  I  was  ever  associated  with. 
If  he  could  not  grasp  the  whole  case  and  believe  in 
it,  he  was  never  inclined  to  touch  it."30 

In  the  same  strain  wrote  Henry  C.  Whitney:  "It 
was  morally  impossible  for  Lincoln  to  argue  dis- 
honestly. He  could  no  more  do  it  than  he  could 
steal.  It  was  the  same  thing  to  him,  in  essence,  to 
despoil  a  man  of  his  property  by  larceny  or  by  illogi- 
cal or  flagitious  reasoning;  and  even  to  defeat  a 
suitor  by  technicalities,  or  by  merely  arbitrary  law, 
savored  strongly  of  dishonesty  to  him.  He  tolerated 
it  sometimes,  but  always  with  a  grimace."  31 

A  number  of  other  fellow-attorneys  have  expressed 
similar  opinions.  To  quote  them  all  might  lead  to  a 
veritable  paroxysm  of  citation;  and  needlessly  so, 
for  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  in  refusing 
unworthy  cases  Lincoln  did  simple  justice  by  the 
rejected  litigants,  as  well  as  by  himself. 

But  it  should  not  be  inferred  that  he  looked  with 
misgivings  on  every  retainer  which  was  offered  to 
him,  or  that  he  peered  unduly  about  in  search  of 
reasons  for  turning  patrons  away.  On  the  contrary, 
Lincoln  welcomed  the  general  run  of  business  as  any 
lawyer  might.  Like  most  men  who  are  free  from 
guile,  he  usually  suspected  none  in  others. 

He  certainly  did  not  guard  himself  against  decep- 
tion, as  did  that  fine,  old-fashioned  practitioner  of 
the  Colonial  school,  George  Wythe,  who,  when  there 


66  HONEST    ABE 

seemed  reason  to  mistrust  a  client's  initial  statement, 
required  it  to  be  made  under  oath.  On  circuit,  more- 
over, Lincoln  generally  found  but  scant  opportunity 
for  probing  into  his  suits  before  they  came  to  trial. 
Acting  as  counsel  for  local  attorneys,  he  had  to  rely 
upon  them  for  the  proper  preparation  of  their  cases ; 
and  so  it  happened  that  he  found  himself  at  times 
in  court  supporting  litigants  whose  contentions  the 
evidence  wholly  failed  to  sustain. 

When  a  mishap  of  this  nature  occurred,  trouble 
ensued.  The  recently  alert  advocate  —  all  enthusi- 
asm, courage,  and  skill  —  lapsed  into  a  dispirited 
pleader  whose  movements  seemed  almost  mechan- 
ical. In  fact,  if  we  may  credit  the  traditions  of  the 
circuit,  his  thoughts  were  engaged,  from  that  mo- 
ment, not  on  how  to  win  the  case,  but  on  how  to  get 
out  of  it.  Particularly  was  this  so  when,  taken  by 
surprise  in  the  midst  of  a  criminal  trial,  he  became 
convinced  —  as  happened  on  several  occasions  — 
of  his  client's  guilt. 

An  instance  in  point  has  been  related  by  Judge 
Parks,  a  prominent  member,  at  the  time,  of  the 
Illinois  bar.  He  writes:  "A  man  was  indicted  for 
larceny.  Lincoln,  Young,  and  myself  defended  him. 
Lincoln  was  satisfied  by  the  evidence  that  he  was 
guilty  and  ought  to  be  convicted.  He  called  Young 
and  myself  aside,  and  said, '  If  you  can  say  anything 
for  the  man,  do  it,  —  I  can't.  If  I  attempt,  the  jury 
will  see  that  I  think  he  is  guilty,  and  convict  him, 
of  course.'  The  case  was  submitted  by  us  to  the 
jury  without  a  word.  The  jury  failed  to  agree, 
and  before  the  next  term  the  man  died.  Lincoln's 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  67 

honesty  undoubtedly  saved  him  from  the  peniten- 
tiary." 32 

A  similar  difficulty  arose  in  the  Patterson  murder 
trial,  a  case  of  some  celebrity  that  held  the  center 
of  the  judicial  stage  for  some  days  in  Champaign 
County.  The  prosecution  was  conducted  by  Dis- 
trict Attorney  Lamon;  the  defense,  by  Leonard 
Swett  and  his  friend  Abraham  Lincoln.  As  the  evi- 
dence against  the  prisoner  developed,  his  counsel 
realized  that  they  were  defending  a  guilty  man.  The 
discovery  appears  to  have  unnerved  Lincoln  who, 
as  the  District  Attorney  expressed  it,  "felt  himself 
morally  paralyzed."  Acknowledging  this  condition 
to  his  associate,  he  said:  "Swett,  the  man  is  guilty. 
You  defend  him,  —  I  can't." 

There  is  reason  to  think  that  Lincoln  urged  his 
colleague  privately  before  Judge  Davis,  the  presid- 
ing magistrate,  to  join  him  in  arranging  for  a  plea 
of  manslaughter,  with  the  understanding  that  their 
client  should  receive  the  minimum  sentence.  This 
proposition  Swett  apparently  brushed  aside.  He 
conducted  the  defense  to  its  formal  conclusion,  made 
his  argument  to  the  jury,  and  —  again  quoting  La- 
mon —  "saved  the  guilty  man  from  justice."  A 
considerable  fee  was  paid  for  that  signal  service,  but 
Lincoln  is  said  to  have  declined  any  share  of  the 
money.33 

In  civil  actions,  he  disposed  even  more  summarily 
of  clients  who  had  deceived  him,  or  who  persisted 
in  litigating  over  matters  that  were  found  to  lack 
merit.  Recalling  such  instances,  Mr.  Herndon  says : 
"His  retention  by  a  man  to  defend  a  lawsuit  did 


68  HONEST    ABE 

not  prevent  him  from  throwing  it  up  in  its  most  criti- 
cal stage  if  he  believed  he  was  espousing  an  unjust 
cause.  This  extreme  conscientiousness  and  disre- 
gard of  the  alleged  sacredness  of  the  professional 
cloak  robbed  him  of  much  so-called  success  at  the 
bar.  He  once  wrote  to  one  of  our  clients,  '  I  do  not 
think  there  is  the  least  use  of  doing  anything  more 
with  your  lawsuit.  I  not  only  do  not  think  you  are 
sure  to  gain  it,  but  I  do  think  you  are  sure  to  lose  it. 
Therefore  the  sooner  it  ends  the  better.'" *4 

Another  anecdote  of  similar  bearing  is  furnished 
by  J.  Henry  Shaw,  a  lawyer  in  practice  years  ago  at 
Beardstown,  Illinois.  This  contributor  writes : ' '  Lin- 
coln came  into  my  office  one  day  with  the  remark, 
4 1  see  you  Ve  been  suing  some  of  my  clients,  and 
I've  come  down  to  see  about  it.'  He  had  reference 
to  a  suit  I  had  brought  to  enforce  the  specific  per- 
formance of  a  contract.  I  explained  the  case  to  him, 
and  showed  my  proofs.  He  seemed  surprised  that  I 
should  deal  so  frankly  with  him,  and  said  he  would 
be  as  frank  with  me;  that  my  client  was  justly 
entitled  to  a  decree,  and  he  should  so  represent  it  to 
the  court;  and  that  it  was  against  his  principles  to 
contest  a  clear  matter  of  right.  So  my  client  got  a 
deed  for  a  farm  which,  had  another  lawyer  been  in 
Mr.  Lincoln's  place,  would  have  been  consumed  by 
the  costs  of  litigation  for  years,  with  the  result  prob- 
ably the  same  in  the  end."  36 

Still  another  civil  suit  was  well  under  way  before 
Lincoln  discovered  the  defendant,  whom  he  repre- 
sented, to  be  in  the  wrong.  This  man,  a  live-stock 
breeder,  had  sold  the  plaintiff  a  number  of  sheep  at 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  69 

a  stipulated  average  price.  When  the  animals  were 
delivered,  many  of  them,  according  to  the  pur- 
chaser's claim,  proved  to  be  so  young  that  they  did 
not  fulfill  the  conditions  of  the  contract,  and  he  sued 
for  damages.  The  evidence  produced  at  the  trial 
sustained  the  complaint.  Several  witnesses  testi- 
fied, moreover,  that  according  to  usage  such  of  the 
animals  as  were  under  a  certain  age  should  be  re- 
garded as  lambs,  and  of  less  value  than  full-grown 
sheep.  No  sooner  had  these  facts  been  established 
than  Mr.  Lincoln  changed  his  line  of  action.  Ceas- 
ing to  contest  the  case,  he  directed  all  his  attention 
to  the  task  of  ascertaining  exactly  how  many  lambs 
had  been  delivered.  This  done,  he  briefly  addressed 
the  jury.  They  were  obliged,  he  conceded,  to  bring 
in  a  verdict  against  his  client ;  but  he  asked  them  to 
make  sure  of  the  exact  damage  sustained  by  the 
plaintiff,  in  order  that  both  parties  might  have 
simple  justice.  And  this  was  done.36 

To  these  stories  should  be  added  the  testimony  of 
Judge  Joseph  Gillespie,  a  leading  Illinois  attorney: 
"  Mr.  Lincoln's  love  of  justice  and  fair  play  was  his 
predominating  trait.  I  have  often  listened  to  him 
when  I  thought  he  would  certainly  state  his  case  out 
of  court.  It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  assume,  or 
attempt  to  bolster  up,  a  false  position.  He  would 
abandon  his  case  first.  He  did  so  in  the  case  of 
Buckmaster  for  the  use  of  Dedham  versus  Beems 
and  Arthur,  in  our  Supreme  Court,  in  which  I  hap- 
pened to  be  opposed  to  him.  Another  gentleman, 
less  fastidious,  took  Mr.  Lincoln's  place  and  gained 
the  case."87 


70  HONEST    ABE 

But  perhaps  his  most  notable  desertion  of  a  client 
occurred  once  at  Postville,  before  Circuit  Judge 
Treat,  in  the  midst  of  a  Logan  County  trial.  The 
suit  of  Hoblit  against  Farmer  had  come  up  on  appeal 
from  a  decision  given  by  some  local  justice  of  the 
peace.  What  the  alleged  circumstances  were  Lin- 
coln did  not  know  until  he  was  retained,  in  the  Cir- 
cuit Court,  to  represent  the  plaintiff.  That  worthy 
went  upon  the  witness  stand  to  prove  his  claim.  Af- 
ter testifying  about  the  items  of  the  account  against 
Farmer,  and  after  allowing  all  set-offs,  he  swore 
positively  that  the  balance  had  not  been  paid.  Yet 
when  the  defendant's  attorney,  Asahel  Gridley,  pro- 
duced a  receipt  in  full,  given  prior  to  the  bringing  of 
the  action,  the  witness  was  obliged  to  admit  that  he 
had  signed  the  paper.  Whether  or  not  it  had  been 
introduced  at  the  original  hearing  is  left  in  doubt,  as 
the  story  goes;  but  there  can  be  no  question  about 
the  plaintiff's  surprise.  Taken  off  his  guard,  Hoblit 
turned  to  his  counsel  and  exclaimed  that  he  "sup- 
posed the  cuss  had  lost  it."  Whereupon  Lincoln 
arose,  and  left  the  court-room.  Taking  notice  of  his 
departure,  Judge  Treat  sent  the  sheriff,  Dr.  John 
Deskins,  in  pursuit.  When  that  officer  found  the 
missing  lawyer,  he  was  seated  in  the  tavern  across 
the  court-house  square,  with  his  feet  on  the  stove 
and  his  head  among  the  clouds. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  the  sheriff,  "the  judge  wants 
you." 

"Oh,  does  he?"  was  the  reply.  "Well,  you  go 
back  and  tell  the  judge  that  I  can't  come.  My 
hands  are  dirty  and  I  came  over  to  clean  them." 38 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  71 

The  message  was  duly  delivered  to  the  honorable 
court,  and  Lincoln's  unprincipled  client  suffered  a 
nonsuit.39 

There  is  a  pretty  little  sequel  to  this  episode. 
Some  time  later,  when  Gridley  discontinued  prac- 
tice for  more  lucrative  pursuits,  he  manifested  his 
confidence  in  Lincoln,  as  well  as  his  esteem,  by  trans- 
ferring his  entire  law  business  to  him  without  com- 
pensation. This  was  somewhat  after  the  manner  in 
which  Robert  Carter  Nicholas,  a  veteran  member 
of  the  profession  during  a  former  generation,  had 
turned  over  his  clientage  to  Patrick  Henry.  But  no 
such  encounter  appears  to  have  taken  place  between 
the  Virginians  as  has  just  been  related  concerning 
the  Illinois  men.  Nor  is  it  to  be  expected.  That 
abandonment  by  Lincoln  of  a  case  in  mid-career, 
so  to  say,  without  regard  for  the  judge's  wishes, 
is  perhaps  unique.  It  certainly  is  characteristic. 
There  are  instances  of  honorable  counsel,  who,  find- 
ing themselves  in  the  course  of  a  trial  grossly  misled 
by  their  clients,  have  declined  to  serve  them  further, 
and  have  obtained  leave  from  the  court  to  withdraw. 
But  if  any  other  celebrated  American  pleader,  at 
any  time  during  his  career,  rushed  from  a  court- 
room in  a  passion  of  righteous  indignation  over  such 
a  deception,  and  refused  to  return  upon  the  man- 
date of  the  presiding  magistrate,  that  occurrence  is 
not  commonly  known.  Moreover,  from  a  profes- 
sional point  of  view,  the  propriety,  generally  speak- 
ing, of  Lincoln's  course  in  these  matters  has  been 
gravely  questioned.  Some  critics,  conceding  the 
misconduct  of  the  clients  whom  he  deserted,  still 


72  HONEST    ABE 

appear  to  think  that  his  treatment  of  them  de- 
tracted somewhat  from  his  character  as  a  lawyer. 
And  with  reason,  if  an  advocate's  first  duty,  as  has 
been  repeatedly  asserted,  is  fidelity  to  the  cause  in 
which  his  services  are  enlisted.  Yet  how  far  does 
that  duty  require  him  to  go  after  he  has  lost  confi- 
dence in  the  rectitude  of  his  cause?  Some  barristers 
—  and  the  number  includes  men  of  distinction  — 
have  frankly  set  no  limits  to  their  obligations.  They 
hold  that  a  lawyer,  once  he  has  accepted  a  client's 
retainer,  is  pledged  to  stand  by  him  through  thick 
and  thin.  The  blacker  the  evidence  develops  against 
him,  in  a  criminal  action,  or  the  less  palpable  become 
the  merits  of  his  case  in  a  civil  one,  the  more  firmly 
they  consider  his  counsel  bound  in  honor  to  battle 
for  a  verdict.  Should  that  verdict,  if  it  is  finally 
won,  seem  contrary  to  morality  or  justice,  the  fault, 
in  their  opinion,  does  not  lie  with  the  man  to  whose 
skill  and  eloquence  it  may  be  due.  His  attention, 
they  believe,  was  properly  fixed,  to  the  exclusion  of 
everything  else,  upon  that  part  of  the  proceedings 
which  had  been  committed  to  his  care.  If  the  same 
singleness  of  purpose,  perhaps  the  same  ability  with 
which  he  discharged  this  function,  had  been  exer- 
cised by  the  attorney  on  the  other  side,  as  well  as 
by  the  judge  and  the  jury,  to  say  nothing  of  wit- 
nesses and  lawmakers,  the  administration  of  justice 
would,  according  to  their  code,  have  been  secure.  It 
is  as  though  they  were  priests  in  the  temple  of  the 
blindfolded  goddess,  interceding  for  sinners  no  less 
persuasively  than  for  saints;  as  though,  serving 
every  comer  however  unclean,  they  thought  it  no 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  73 

shame  on  their  sacred  office  if  they  seized  a  chance, 
when  the  divinity  should  relax  her  vigilance,  or  the 
high-priest  should  nod,  to  jog  the  delicately  poised 
balance  in  their  suppliant's  favor. 

Such  a  theory  of  advocacy  revolted  Lincoln.  In- 
deed, his  whole  career  at  the  bar  was  a  protest 
against  the  conception  of  a  lawyer's  duty  that  im- 
poses upon  him  any  fancied  requirement  to  procure 
a  judgment  of  which  his  conscience  disapproves. 
He  had  little  or  no  sympathy,  therefore,  with  the 
loyalty-at-any-cost  practitioners ;  and  he  would  not 
join  them,  it  goes  without  saying,  on  those  slippery 
paths  of  sophistry,  which  wind  too  often  through  the 
ivory  gates  of  falsehood.  What  criticism,  if  any,  he 
made  of  their  conduct  is  not  definitely  known.  Yet 
we  almost  seem  to  hear  him  exclaim,  as  Carlyle  did, 
"Can  there  be  a  more  horrible  object  in  existence 
than  an  eloquent  man  not  speaking  the  truth?" 

These  reflections,  be  it  said,  apply  all  in  all  to 
some  only  of  the  counselors  who  stand  by  their 
colors,  after  they  discover  them  to  be  tarnished; 
for  many  faithful  members  of  the  profession  regard 
the  advocate's  mission  in  a  different  light.  He  is 
bound,  they  admit,  to  remain  in  a  case  after  a  trial 
has  begun,  especially  if  retained  for  the  defense;  and 
this,  however  distasteful  or  even  reprehensible  his 
client's  side  may  prove  to  be.  That  client,  according 
to  their  theory,  must  be  represented,  to  the  close 
of  the  action,  by  his  legal  adviser,  or  the  whole  judi- 
cial machinery,  of  which  an  attorney  on  each  side 
is  an  essential  part,  breaks  down.  In  this  nicely 
adjusted  mechanism,  they  claim,  the  functions  of 


74  HONEST    ABE 

the  advocate,  and  those  of  the  judge  as  well  as  the 
jury,  are  exercised  on  widely  different  planes,  so  that 
under  normal  conditions  their  operations  can  never 
coalesce.  Should  counsel,  therefore,  in  the  midst  of 
a  trial,  assume  the  judicial  r61e,  condemn  his  own 
cause  before  the  hour  of  judgment,  and  deny  his  own 
client  the  protection  which  had  impliedly  been 
pledged,  he  would,  in  their  eyes,  commit  a  gross 
breach  of  professional  propriety.  Nay,  more,  his 
course  would  involve,  they  contend,  a  betrayal  of 
both  court  and  client,  —  a  Quixotic  freak,  in  which 
private  and  public  interests  would  alike  be  sacri- 
ficed. So  far,  both  classes  of  practitioners  who  will 
not  abandon  a  cause,  after  they  find  it  tainted,  ap- 
pear to  move  abreast;  but  at  this  point  their  ways 
part.  While  the  one  advocate  leaves  not  a  stone 
unturned,  as  the  expression  goes,  to  extricate  his 
man  —  right  or  wrong  —  with  a  sweeping  victory, 
the  other,  deeming  himself  under  no  obligation  to 
strive  for  an  obviously  unjust  verdict,  remains  to 
safeguard  his  client's  legal  rights,  presents  his  case 
fairly  on  the  evidence,  and  does  in  his  behalf  all  that 
an  honorable  officer  of  the  court  may  do,  without 
lending  himself  to  an  evasion  of  the  law  or  a  perver- 
sion of  justice. 

This  latter  conception  of  what  a  lawyer  owes  at 
once  to  conscience  and  to  society  had  doubtless  im- 
pressed itself  on  Lincoln's  good  sense.  For  he  tried 
hard  enough,  in  several  instances,  to  conduct  forlorn 
hopes  to  their  bitter  conclusions.  But  here  again 
the  compelling  honesty  of  the  man's  nature  thwarted 
his  efforts,  until  it  would  almost  seem  as  if,  by  a  sin- 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  75 

gular  paradox,  he  really  evinced  more  loyalty  when 
he  deserted,  than  when  he  stood  his  ground  to  make 
a  half-hearted  fight. 

Lincoln's  ineptitude  on  the  latter  occasions  vexed 
his  colleagues  not  a  little.  They  appear  to  have  been 
embarrassed  more  by  his  halting  cooperation  than 
by  an  out-and-out  withdrawal  from  a  case.  One  of 
his  local  associates  on  the  circuit,  Henry  C.  Whitney, 
has  related  several  unpleasant  experiences  of  this 
nature;  and  from  the  warmth  with  which  he  writes, 
many  years  after  the  event,  one  may  infer  how  acute 
must  have  been  the  narrator's  irritation  at  the  time. 
Perhaps  one  of  these  anecdotes,  in  Mr.  Whitney's 
own  language,  will  best  illustrate  the  whole  peculiar 
matter.  He  is  telling  about  the  trial  of  a  man  for  a 
homicide  committed  at  Sadorus,  Illinois:  — 

"When  the  facts  were  brought  out  before  the 
petit  jury,  it  was  very  clearly  developed  that  the  in- 
dictment should  have  been  for  murder,  instead  of  — 
what  it  was  —  for  manslaughter,  and  Lincoln  was 
evidently  of  that  opinion.  Mr.  Lincoln,  Leonard 
Swett,  and  myself  were  associated  for  the  defense. 
The  wife  of  the  accused  had  wealthy  and  influential 
relations  in  Vermillion  County,  and  no  pains  were 
spared  to  make  a  good  defense.  Swett  and  myself 
took  the  lawyer's  view,  and  were  anxious  to  acquit 
entirely.  Lincoln  sat  in  our  counsels,  but  took  little 
part  in  them.  His  opinion  was  fixed  and  could 
not  be  changed.  He  joined  in  the  trial,  but  with  no 
enthusiasm.  His  logically  honest  mind  chilled  his 
efforts. 

"Lincoln  was  to  make  the  last  speech  to  the  jury 


76  HONEST    ABE 

on  our  side,  and  Swett  the  speech  preceding.  Swett 
was  then,  as  he  was  long  afterward,  the  most  effec- 
tive jury  advocate  in  the  State,  except  Lincoln.  He 
occupied  one  evening  on  this  occasion,  and  when  he 
closed,  I  was  'full  of  faith  that  our  client  would  be 
acquitted  entirely.  Lincoln  followed  on  our  side, 
the  next  morning,  and  while  he  made  some  good 
points,  the  honesty  of  his  mental  processes  forced 
him  into  a  line  of  argument  and  admission  that  was 
very  damaging.  We  all  felt  that  he  had  hurt  our 
case. 

"I  recollect  one  incident  that  we  regarded  as 
especially  atrocious.  Swett  had  dwelt  with  deep 
pathos  upon  the  condition  of  the  family  —  there  be- 
ing several  small  children,  and  his  wife  then  on  the 
verge  of  confinement  with  another.  Lincoln  himself 
adverted  to  this,  but  only  to  disparage  it  as  an  argu- 
ment, saying  that  the  proper  place  for  such  appeals 
was  to  a  legislature  who  framed  laws,  rather  than  to 
a  jury  who  must  decide  upon  evidence.  Nor  was 
this  done  on  account  of  any  dislike  to  Swett,  for  he 
was  especially  fond  of  Swett  as  an  advocate  and 
associate.  In  point  of  fact,  our  client  was  found 
guilty,  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  three  years ; 
and  Lincoln,  whose  merciless  logic  drove  him  into 
the  belief  that  the  culprit  was  guilty  of  murder,  had 
his  humanity  so  wrought  upon,  that  he  induced  the 
Governor  to  pardon  him  out  after  he  had  served  one 
year."  40 

If  Mr.  Lincoln's  course  during  that  trial  struck  his 
fellow-practitioners  as  "atrocious,"  it  might  be  in- 
teresting to  know  what  epithet  would  have  sufficed 


TRUTH    IN    LAW  77 

to  express  their  feelings  had  they  been  concerned 
with  him  in  his  first  matter  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Illinois.  Appearing  on  that  occasion  for  the 
appellant,  —  according  to  Judge  Treat,  the  com- 
monly accepted  authority  for  an  extraordinary  tale, 
—  he  said:  "This  is  the  first  case  I  have  ever  had  in 
this  court,  and  I  have  therefore  examined  it  with 
great  care.  As  the  court  will  perceive  by  looking  at 
the  abstract  of  the  record,  the  only  question  in  the 
case  is  one  of  authority.  I  have  not  been  able  to  find 
any  authority  to  sustain  my  side  of  the  case,  but  I 
have  found  several  cases  directly  in  point,  on  the 
other  side.  I  will  now  give  these  authorities  to  the 
court,  and  then  submit  the  case."  4I 

That  speech  is  probably  without  parallel  in  the 
history  of  appeals  from  judicial  decisions.  An  ap- 
proach to  the  spirit  which  actuated  it  may  be  found 
in  the  career  of  William  Pinkney,  the  renowned 
Maryland  advocate.  Having  gained  a  verdict  for  a 
client  from  the  Court  of  Chancery,  he  became  con- 
vinced of  its  injustice  when  the  claim  was  made,  on 
appeal,  that  not  all  the  parties  in  interest  were  be- 
fore the  court.  The  point  impressed  itself  on  his 
mind  as  well  taken.  He  promptly  so  declared,  and 
without  any  attempt  at  sustaining  the  decree,  al- 
lowed it  to  be  reversed. 

Lawyers,  whose  fealty  to  the  truth  exercised  such 
an  overmastering  influence  upon  their  conduct, 
would  have  graced  the  bench.  Yet  neither  of  these 
illustrious  men,  it  should  be  added,  attained  judicial 
honors;  unless  indeed  we  count  Lincoln's  irregular 
elevation  to  the  judgment-seat  by  David  Davis, 


78  HONEST    ABE 

who  appointed  him,  from  time  to  time,  —  without 
legal  sanction,  however,  for  so  doing,  —  to  preside 
over  his  court.  The  substitution  appears  to  have 
been  made  for  the  convenience  of  all  concerned, 
when  the  judge  could  not  be  present;  and  both 
sides  are  said,  as  a  rule,  to  have  consented  gladly 
thereto.42  Once  a  whole  term  for  Champaign 
County  was  held,  it  is  asserted,  in  this  unauthorized 
way.  But  how  successfully  the  pseudo-magistrate 
dispensed  justice  must,  by  reason  of  the  meager  de- 
tails that  have  been  preserved,  be  left  largely  to 
conjecture.  Did  Lincoln,  some  may  ask,  really  pos- 
sess the  attributes  of  a  great  judge?  The  query  will, 
perhaps,  suggest  itself  to  those  who  are  fond  of  re- 
constructing history  around  events  that  failed  to 
happen.  If  they  take  account  of  his  faculty  for  see- 
ing both  sides  of  a  question  with  crystal  clearness, 
his  mellow  wisdom,  his  inflexible  love  of  truth,  and, 
above  all,  his  militant  sympathy  with  the  right 
against  the  wrong,  their  fancy  may  well  picture  him, 
under  altered  circumstances,  mounting  to  a  place 
beside  the  leading  jurists  of  Illinois.  Breese,  Caton, 
and  their  compeers,  developing  that  admirable 
system  of  jurisprudence  which  distinguished  the 
Prairie  State,  might,  indeed,  have  profited  by  his 
collaboration. 


CHAPTER  III 

PROFESSIONAL  ETHICS 

IF  the  judicial  rather  than  the  forensic  tempera- 
ment swayed  Lincoln's  conduct  as  a  lawyer,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  this  was  a  drawback 
only  when  he  found  himself  on  the  wrong  side  of  a 
suit.  When  he  stood  on  the  right  side,  with  time 
enough  to  exert  all  the  faculties  of  his  slow-moving 
mind,  no  advocate  in  the  State  was  more  skillful  and 
effective.  Indeed,  those  very  qualities  which  im- 
paired his  usefulness  for  the  winning  of  a  bad  cause 
made  him  especially  strong  in  a  good  one.  After  he 
himself  was  convinced  that  his  client  ought  to  pre- 
vail, he  rarely  failed  to  imbue  judge  and  jury  with 
the  same  belief.1  This  should  be  attributed  some- 
what to  Lincoln's  reputation  for  avoiding  unworthy 
cases.  The  commonly  accepted  idea  that  he  would 
appear  only  in  matters  of  which  his  conscience  ap- 
proved, gave  him,  from  the  very  beginning  of  a 
trial,  an  advantage  not  to  be  despised.  But  what  he 
did,  or  omitted  to  do,  as  the  proceedings  advanced, 
contributed  still  more,  it  may  be  needless  to  add, 
toward  the  gaining  of  a  verdict.  His  methods  make 
one  wonder  whether  there  may  not  be  more  than  a 
stale  gibe  at  the  legal  profession  tucked  away  some- 
where in  the  query  of  the  lad  who  asked,  —  "  Father, 
do  lawyers  tell  the  truth?"  and  the  jesting  answer, 
—  "Yes,  my  son;  lawyers  will  do  anything  to  win  a 


80  HONEST    ABE 

case."  For  Lincoln  in  court  was  truth  in  action.  His 
simple  adherence  to  facts  made  as  vivid  an  impres- 
sion on  those  who  heard  him  as  did  his  intellectual 
powers,  which  were,  by  the  way,  of  no  mean  order. 
The  man's  interpretation  of  the  law,  his  logic,  his 
eloquence,  his  humor,  his  homely,  common-sense 
view  of  things  —  all  shone  in  the  light  of  a  never- 
failing  candor.  While  he  was  trying  a  cause,  stran- 
gers who  happened  to  enter  the  court-room  usually 
found  themselves,  after  a  few  moments,  —  if  con- 
temporary accounts  may  be  accepted,  —  on  his  side 
and  wishing  him  success.  Yet  success,  in  the  ordin- 
ary meaning  of  that  term,  did  not,  to  all  appear- 
ances, alone  concern  him.  What  engaged  most  of  his 
attention,  apparently,  was  how  to  present  the  affair 
in  hand  as  it  had  actually  happened,  without  regard 
to  his  client's  interests.  In  fact,  every  step  that  he 
took,  as  the  trial  moved  along,  seemed  intended,  not 
so  much  to  secure  a  victory  as  to  sift  out  the  truth 
and  establish  justice  at  any  cost. 

Reverting,  unconsciously  perhaps,  to  the  time- 
honored  though  quite  obsolete  idea  of  a  counselor's 
duties,  he  conducted  himself  more  like  the  helpful 
friend  or  adviser  of  the  court  than  like  a  modern 
advocate  striving  for  a  decision.  As  one  of  his  most 
intimate  colleagues,  Leonard  Swett,  relates:  "Where 
most  lawyers  would  object  he  would  say  he  'reck- 
oned' it  would  be  fair  to  let  this  in,  or  that;  and 
sometimes,  when  his  adversary  could  not  quite 
prove  what  Lincoln  knew  to  be  the  truth,  he  'reck- 
oned '  it  would  be  fair  to  admit  the  truth  to  be  so- 
and-so.  When  he  did  object  to  the  court,  and  when 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS        81 

he  heard  his  objections  answered,  he  would  often 
say,  'Well,  I  reckon  I  must  be  wrong.'"  2 

This  equable  disposition  extended  in  a  marked 
degree  to  Lincoln's  manner  of  conducting  an  exam- 
ination. His  own  witnesses  usually  told  their  story 
in  response  to  a  few  straightforward,  kindly  ques- 
tions, and  those  who  took  the  stand  on  the  other  side 
were  treated  by  him  with  the  same  frank  courtesy. 
He  had  a  good-natured  way  of  making  these  people 
feel  at  home  amidst  unaccustomed  surroundings, 
while  draining  them  adroitly  of  what  they  knew 
about  the  case  on  trial.  It  was  so  clearly  his  aim, 
moreover,  to  arrive  at  the  facts,  rather  than  to  score 
winning  points,  that  time  after  time  hostile  witnesses 
mellowed  under  the  charm  of  his  sincerity  and,  con- 
trary to  their  original  intentions,  told  the  truth. 
Candor  begets  candor.  The  light  which  shines 
through  an  upright  man's  eyes  often  kindles  a  re- 
sponsive gleam  in  the  heart  of  a  shuffler.  And  when, 
as  in  Lincoln's  case,  that  upright  man  was  a  shrewd 
lawyer,  controlling  an  unwilling  witness  with  all  the 
masterful  tact  of  a  seer  to  whom  human  nature  must 
have  read  like  an  open  book,  we  begin  to  understand 
how  one  usually  self-restrained  biographer  —  him- 
self a  member  of  the  bar — came  to  believe  the  cross- 
examiner  "endowed,"  at  such  moments,  "with 
psychic  qualities  of  extraordinary  power." 

Less  occult  gifts,  however,  suffice  to  explain  some 
of  these  achievements.  For  here,  as  elsewhere  in 
Lincoln's  practice,  notable  results  were  reached  by 
simple,  open  methods.  How  easily  he  extracted  the 
facts,  for  instance,  from  one  unfriendly  witness  has 


82  HONEST    ABE 

been  told  in  a  characteristic  anecdote  by  the  man 
himself.  This  was  the  Honorable  James  T.  Hoblit, 
of  Lincoln,  Illinois.  Recalling  his  discomfiture  and 
the  attorney  who  caused  it,  he  once  said :  — 

"I  shall  never  forget  my  experience  with  him.  I 
was  subpoenaed  in  a  case  brought  by  one  Paullin 
against  my  uncle,  and  I  knew  too  much  about  the 
matter  in  dispute  for  my  uncle's  good.  The  case  was 
not  of  vital  importance,  but  it  seemed  very  serious 
to  me,  for  I  was  a  mere  boy  at  the  time.  Mr.  Paullin 
had  owned  a  bull  which  was  continually  raiding  his 
neighbor's  corn,  and  one  day  my  uncle  ordered  his 
boys  to  drive  the  animal  out  of  his  fields,  and  not  to 
use  it  too  gently  either.  Well,  the  boys  obeyed  the 
orders  only  too  literally,  for  one  of  them  harpooned 
the  bull  with  a  pitchfork,  injuring  it  permanently, 
and  I  saw  enough  of  the  occurrence  to  make  me  a 
dangerous  witness.  The  result  was  that  Paullin 
sued  my  uncle,  the  boys  were  indicted  for  malicious 
mischief,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  retained  by  the  plaintiff, 
who  was  determined  to  make  an  example  of  some- 
body, and  I  was  subpoenaed  as  a  witness. 

"My  testimony  was,  of  course,  of  the  highest 
possible  importance,  because  the  plaintiff  could  n't 
make  my  cousins  testify,  and  I  had  every  reason  to 
want  to  forget  what  I  had  seen,  and  though  pretty 
frightened,  I  determined,  when  I  took  the  stand,  to 
say  as  little  as  possible.  Well,  as  soon  as  I  told  Mr. 
Lincoln  my  full  name  he  became  very  much  inter- 
ested, asking  me  if  I  was  n't  some  relative  of  his  old 
friend  John  Hoblit  who  kept  the  halfway  house 
between  Springfield  and  Bloomington;  and  when  I 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       83 

answered  that  he  was  my  grandfather,  Mr.  Lincoln 
grew  very  friendly,  plying  me  with  all  sorts  of  ques- 
tions about  family  matters;  which  put  me  com- 
pletely at  my  ease,  and  before  I  knew  what  was  hap- 
pening, I  had  forgotten  to  be  hostile  and  he  had  the 
whole  story.  After  the  trial  he  met  me  outside  the 
court-room  and  stopped  to  tell  me  that  he  knew  I 
had  n't  wanted  to  say  anything  against  my  people, 
but  that  though  he  sympathized  with  me,  I  had 
acted  rightly  and  no  one  could  criticize  me  for  what 
I  had  done.  The  whole  matter  was  afterward  ad- 
justed, but  I  never  forgot  his  friendly  and  encourag- 
ing words  at  a  time  when  I  needed  sympathy  and 
consolation."  3 

Of  course,  all  opposing  witnesses  were  not  so  pli- 
ant. They  failed  frequently  to  give  Lincoln  the 
answers  that  he  sought;  yet  his  patience  and  cour- 
tesy lost  nothing  of  their  fine  flavor,  as  long  as  the 
man  on  the  stand  appeared  to  be  telling  the  truth. 
There  were  no  efforts  made  to  confuse  him  by  art- 
fully framed  questions,  or  to  entrap  him  into  seem- 
ing contradictions.  Above  all,  he  was  safe  from 
brow-beating,  because  this  level-headed  advocate  ap- 
parently never  committed  the  fault  of  harassing  an 
honest  witness.  Lincoln's  spirit  of  fair  play  forbade 
any  such  behavior,  even  if  the  spirit  of  wisdom  had 
not  taught  him,  from  the  very  beginning,  what  so 
many  learned  gentlemen  at  the  bar  fail,  throughout 
their  entire  careers,  to  grasp,  that  the  art  of  cross- 
examination  rarely  consists  in  examining  crossly. 

But  there  came  a  time,  now  and  then,  when  this 
even-tempered  giant,  with  his  homely,  magnetic 


84  HONEST    ABE 

smile,  did  become  cross  —  how  cross,  only  those  who 
caught  the  direct  impact  of  his  anger  fully  realized. 
Let  some  scamp  try  to  tell  him  a  lie  from  the  wit- 
ness-chair, and  the  fellow's  troubles  began.  He  could 
hardly  have  brought  his  spurious  wares  to  a  less  prof- 
itable market.  For,  slow  as  Lincoln  generally  was 
to  doubt  another's  probity,  so  quick  was  he  to  detect 
false  values  when  that  probity  fell  under  suspicion. 
And  cunningly  woven,  indeed,  must  have  been  the 
web  of  perjury  which  his  logical  mind  —  once  it  set 
about  the  task  —  could  not  unravel.  He  had  a  dis- 
concerting way  of  stripping  unsound  testimony, 
with  one  searching  question  after  another,  until  the 
futile  cheat  lay  exposed  in  all  its  nakedness.  Then 
his  contempt  for  the  discredited  witness  knew  no 
bounds.  Kindness  gave  way  to  severity.  Words 
that  scorched  came  hot  and  fast.  It  was  as  if  some 
sacred  thing  had  been  violated.  And  what  happens 
after  one  arouses  the  fury  of  a  patient  man,  received 
uncommonly  vivid  illustration. 

He  was  once  trying  a  railway  case  for  the  defense, 
when  the  plaintiff,  testifying  in  his  own  behalf,  fla- 
grantly misstated  certain  facts.  The  perjurer's  at- 
torney, on  addressing  the  jury,  tried  to  excite  prej- 
udice against  the  defendant  company  by  making  the 
trite  charge  that  on  one  side  was  "a  flesh-and- 
blood  man,"  with  a  soul  such  as  the  jurymen  had, 
while  on  the  other  was  a  soulless  corporation.  To 
which  Lincoln  indignantly  replied:  "Counsel  avers 
that  his  client  has  a  soul.  This  is  possible,  of  course, 
but  from  the  way  he  has  testified  under  oath  in  this 
case,  to  gain,  or  hoping  to  gain,  a  few  paltry  dollars, 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS        8$ 

he  would  sell,  nay,  has  already  sold,  his  little  soul  very 
low.  But  our  client  is  but  a  conventional  name  for 
thousands  of  widows  and  orphans  whose  husbands' 
and  parents'  hard  earnings  are  represented  by  this 
defendant,  and  who  possess  souls  which  they  would 
not  swear  away  as  the  plaintiff  has  done  for  ten 
million  times  as  much  as  is  at  stake  here."  4 

It  would  be  wrong  to  infer  that  Lincoln's  scorn  for 
untruthfulness  on  the  stand  was  visited  upon  the 
heads  of  opposing  witnesses  only.  His  own  wit- 
nesses, when  they  sulked  under  cross-examination  or 
tried  to  mislead  counsel  on  the  other  side,  had  a 
taste  of  his  quality  in  this  respect.  He  even  went  so 
far,  at  times,  as  to  rebuke  them  in  open  court  for 
their  misbehavior. 

An  occurrence  of  this  character  —  there  are  said 
to  have  been  several  —  is  related  by  a  colleague  of 
Lincoln,  Anthony  Thornton,  who  says:  "On  one 
occasion  he  and  I  were  associate  counsel  in  an  im- 
portant lawsuit,  when  he  exhibited  his  love  of  right 
and  fairness  in  a  remarkable  manner.  John  T.  Stu- 
art, of  Springfield,  was  counsel  for  the  opposite 
party.  It  was  a  trial  by  jury.  I  examined  the  wit- 
nesses and  Mr.  Lincoln  attended  to  the  legal  ques- 
tions involved.  I  had  examined  an  intelligent  wit- 
ness whose  testimony  was  clear  and  satisfactory,  and 
readily  given.  When  the  cross-examination  com- 
menced, this  witness  hesitated,  manifested  reluc- 
tance to  answer,  and  was  evasive  in  his  replies. 
Mr.  Lincoln  arose  and  addressed  the  court,  and  pub- 
licly and  severely  reprimanded  the  witness.  It  was 
a  dangerous  experiment  which  might  have  brought 


86  HONEST    ABE 

discredit  on  our  most  important  witness.  His  ob- 
ject, however,  was  accomplished,  and  the  witness 
answered  promptly  all  questions  on  cross-examina- 
tion." 5 

This  act  is  perhaps  unique  in  the  annals  of  the 
American  bar.  At  all  events,  its  fellow  —  if  there 
ever  was  one  —  has  not  become  known  to  general 
literature.  Nor  is  this  surprising,  for  there  have  not 
been  many  Lincolns,  and  reputable  lawyers  of  to- 
day hardly  see  fit  to  follow  such  an  example.  A 
pleader  who  would  do  so  —  in  fact,  one  who  gener- 
ally speaking  would  employ  that  remarkable  man's 
methods  with  success  —  must  not  only  have  faith 
in  the  merits  of  his  cases,  but  he  must  be  efficiently 
honest,  too,  to  the  backbone.  For  Lincoln's  plan  of 
conduct  rested  upon  the  single  virtue  which,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  is  least  easily  simulated.  Had  he 
failed  at  crucial  points  to  be  straightforward,  with- 
out shuffling  or  reserve,  had  the  delicate  image  of 
truth,  which  he  sought  to  rear,  leaned  ever  so  little 
out  of  true,  to  the  north  or  the  south  or  the  east  or 
the  west,  that  entire  fair  fabric  would,  at  the  first 
jolt,  inevitably  have  fallen  to  the  ground  in  ruins 
before  the  very  eyes  of  the  jury. 

How  well  this  advocate  stood  the  test  in  doubtless 
many  trying  situations,  judges  and  lawyers  have 
admiringly  recounted.  Justice  Breese  spoke,  as  it 
were,  for  the  bench  when  he  said  that  Lincoln  prac- 
ticed "none  of  the  chicanery  of  the  profession  to 
which  he  was  devoted,  nor  any  of  those  mean,  and 
little,  and  shuffling,  and  dishonorable  arts  all  do  not 
avoid."  6  The  judgment  of  the  bar  was  as  compre- 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       87 

hensively  summed  up  in  these  words  of  Mr.  Whit- 
ney: "Unlike  the  average  lawyer,  he  would  not  do 
anything  mean,  or  which  savored  of  dishonesty  or 
sharp  practice,  or  which  required  absolute  sophistry 
or  chicanery  in  order  to  succeed." 

Turning  up  a  leaf  in  his  own  early  experiences, 
that  same  associate  says:  "When  I  was  new  to  the 
bar,  I  was  trying  to  keep  some  evidence  out,  and 
was  getting  along  very  well  with  the  court,  when 
Lincoln  sung  out, '  I  reckon  it  would  be  fair  to  let 
that  in.'  It  sounded  treasonable,  but  I  had  to  get 
used  to  this  eccentricity."  7 

Perhaps  the  clearest  conception  of  Lincoln's  fidel- 
ity to  his  own  high  standards  of  practice,  even  when 
beset  by  almost  compelling  temptations,  is  derived 
from  Mr.  Herndon's  account  of  an  incident  which 
occurred  during  their  partnership.  To  do  the  story 
justice  it  should  be  told,  without  abridgment,  in  the 
narrator's  own  language. 

"Messrs.  Stuart  and  Edwards,"  he  relates,  "once 
brought  a  suit  against  a  client  of  ours,  which  in- 
volved the  title  to  considerable  property.  At  that 
time  we  had  only  two  or  three  terms  of  court,  and 
the  docket  was  somewhat  crowded.  The  plaintiff's 
attorneys  were  pressing  us  for  a  trial,  and  we  were 
equally  as  anxious  to  ward  it  off.  What  we  wanted 
were  time  and  a  continuance  to  the  next  term.  We 
dared  not  make  an  affidavit  for  continuance, 
founded  on  facts,  because  no  such  pertinent  and 
material  facts  as  the  law  contemplated  existed.  Our 
case  for  the  time  seemed  hopeless.  One  morning, 
however,  I  accidentally  overheard  a  remark  from 


88  HONEST    ABE 

Stuart  indicating  his  fear  lest  a  certain  fact  should 
happen  to  come  into  our  possession.  I  felt  some 
relief,  and  at  once  drew  up  a  fictitious  plea,  averring 
as  best  I  could  the  substance  of  the  doubts  I  knew 
existed  in  Stuart's  mind.  The  plea  was  as  skillfully 
drawn  as  I  knew  how,  and  was  framed  as  if  we  had 
the  evidence  to  sustain  it.  The  whole  thing  was  a 
sham,  but  so  constructed  as  to  work  the  desired 
continuance,  because  I  knew  that  Stuart  and  Ed- 
wards believed  the  facts  were  as  I  pleaded  them. 
This  was  done  in  the  absence  and  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  Lincoln.  The  plea  could  not  be  demurred  to, 
and  the  opposing  counsel  dared  not  take  the  issue  on 
it.  It  perplexed  them  sorely. 

"At  length,  before  further  steps  were  taken,  Lin- 
coln came  into  court.  He  looked  carefully  over  all 
the  papers  in  the  case,  as  was  his  custom,  and  seeing 
my  ingenious  subterfuge,  asked,  'Is  this  seventh 
plea  a  good  one?'  Proud  of  the  exhibition  of  my 
skill,  I  answered  that  it  was.  'But,'  he  inquired  in- 
credulously, 'is  it  founded  on  fact?'  I  was  obliged 
to  respond  in  the  negative,  at  the  same  time  follow- 
ing up  my  answer  with  an  explanation  of  what  I  had 
overheard  Stuart  intimate,  and  of  how  these  alleged 
facts  could  be  called  facts  if  a  certain  construction 
were  put  upon  them.  I  insisted  that  our  position 
was  justifiable,  and  that  our  client  must  have  time 
or  be  ruined.  I  could  see  at  once  it  failed  to  strike 
Lincoln  as  just  right.  He  scratched  his  head  thought- 
fully and  asked,  'Had  n't  we  better  withdraw  that 
plea?  You  know  it's  a  sham,  and  a  sham  is  very 
often  but  another  name  for  a  lie.  Don't  let  it  go  on 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       89 

record.  The  cursed  thing  may  come  staring  us  in 
the  face  long  after  this  suit  has  been  forgotten.'  The 
plea  was  withdrawn.  By  some  agency  —  not  our 
own  —  the  case  was  continued  and  our  client's  inter- 
ests were  saved." 

To  which  Mr.  Herndon  adds  the  significant  com- 
ment: "  I  venture  the  assertion  that  he  was  the  only 
member  of  the  bar  in  Springfield  who  would  have 
taken  such  a  conscientious  view  of  the  matter."  8 

Apparently  Lincoln  differed  from  his  brother 
lawyers  in  being  equipped  with  a  vizuatizing  sense  of 
what  has  well  been  called  "the  moment  after." 
Taking  a  firm  stand,  moreover,  on  the  old  moral 
dictum  that  nothing  can  need  a  lie,  he  avoided  the 
quirks  and  quillets  which  have  so  often  brought  re- 
proach upon  the  administration  of  the  law.  For 
Cicero's  theory  of  a  pleader's  occasional  duty  "to 
maintain  the  plausible,  though  it  may  not  be  the 
truth,"  evidently  found  no  favor  in  his  eyes.  Nor 
did  he  look  more  kindly  upon  false  pleas  to  impede 
justice  when  they  were  made  by  his  friends  and 
colleagues.  Some  of  them,  hard-pressed  for  a  valid 
defense,  did  so  in  the  Chase  case  —  an  action 
brought  before  Lincoln  as  deputy  judge,  during  one 
of  those  irregular  sittings  on  the  Circuit  Court 
bench  that  he  owed,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Davis's 
appointment.  This  particular  trial,  if  such  it  may  be 
called,  is  the  only  instance  among  his  judicial  experi- 
ences of  which  a  detailed  report  has  come  down  to 
us.  The  suit  was  instituted  to  collect  a  promissory 
note  given  by  some  citizens  of  Champaign  County 
to  one  Chase,  with  the  understanding  that  he  would 


90  HONEST    ABE 

establish  a  newspaper.  Failing  to  keep  his  agree- 
ment he  had,  nevertheless,  transferred  the  note  be- 
fore maturity  to  an  innocent  holder,  who  now  sued 
for  the  money.  There  was  no  good  defense,  yet  sev- 
eral young  lawyers  had  been  retained  by  the  makers 
of  the  note  to  do  what  they  could  toward  warding 
off  a  decision.  Whenever  the  plaintiff  pressed  for 
judgment,  this  whole  array  of  budding  legal  talent 
ranged  itself  before  the  bench  and,  by  resorting  to 
every  conceivable  shift,  succeeded  in  securing  post- 
ponement after  postponement.  Seemingly  the  old 
legal  maxim,  "justice  delayed  is  justice  denied," 
would  soon  have  one  more  literal  illustration.  So 
matters  stood  on  the  last  day  of  the  term.  Court  was 
about  to  close,  and  the  plaintiff  again  demanded 
judgment,  to  which  counsel  for  the  defendants,  as 
before,  strenuously  objected.  Finally  Lincoln  an- 
nounced that  he  would  return  at  candlelight  to  dis- 
pose of  that  case.  He  came  accordingly,  took  his 
seat  at  the  clerk's  desk,  and  called  for  the  papers. 
Finding  no  proper  defense  on  file,  he  began  to  write 
an  order,  when  one  of  the  young  attorneys,  his  friend 
and  associate  in  several  matters,  interposed  saying 
that  a  demurrer  had  been  entered.  But  Lincoln 
continued  to  write,  merely  changing  the  form  and 
reading  aloud,  as  he  wrote :  — 

L.  D.  Chaddon  ^|  A     .,  ,          rQrf/. 

I  April  term,  1856. 
vs  i 

T  _    _  '  j        [In  Assumpsit. 

J.  D.  Beasley  et  al.      ) 

Ordered  by  the  Court:  Plea  in  abatement  by  B.  Z. 
Greene,  a  defendant  not  served,   filed  Saturday, 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       91 

April  24,  (?)  1856,  at  II  o'clock  A.M.,  be  stricken 
from  the  files  by  order  of  Court.  Demurrer  to  declar- 
ation, if  ever  there  was  one,  overruled.  Defendants, 
who  are  served  now,  at  8  o'clock  P.M.  of  the  last  day 
of  the  term,  ask  to  plead  to  the  merits,  which  is 
denied  by  the  Court,  on  the  ground  that  the  offer 
comes  too  late,  and  therefore,  as  by  nil  dicit,  judg- 
ment is  rendered  for  plaintiff.  Clerk  assess  damages. ' ' 

"  How  can  we  get  this  up  to  the  Supreme  Court?  " 
inquired  the  somewhat  dazed  young  man  who  had 
spoken  last. 

In  Lincoln's  ready  reply  may  be  discerned  the 
pent-up  scorn  of  a  whole  session.  "You  all  have 
been  so  smart  about  this  case,"  said  he,  "that  you 
can  find  out  for  yourselves  how  to  carry  it  up." 
And  court  stood  adjourned.9 

A  more  serious  affair  was  that  of  the  youthful 
practitioner  who  disgraced  himself  at  the  Blooming- 
ton  bar.  While  serving  as  a  law  student,  he  had  im- 
proved the  opportunity  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  certain  important  facts  concerning  a  suit  in 
which  his  preceptor  represented  the  plaintiff.  Dis- 
closing this  information  some  time  thereafter  to  the 
defendant,  whose  counsel  he  became,  the  young  man 
used  it  in  behalf  of  the  one  client  against  the  other. 
Proceedings  for  his  disbarment  were  about  to  ensue 
when  the  offender  threw  himself  upon  the  clemency 
of  the  court,  with  a  promise  to  leave  the  country  and 
sin  no  more.  This  impressed  Judge  Davis  as  the 
simplest  way  out  of  an  unpleasant  duty.  He  stipu- 
lated, however,  that  the  culprit,  before  departing, 


92  HONEST    ABE 

should  submit  to  a  rebuke  in  open  court,  and  selected 
Lincoln  to  administer  the  lesson. 

There  must  have  been  more  of  sorrow  than  of 
anger  in  the  little  speech  whereby  this  delicate  office 
was  discharged.  The  speaker,  it  is  said,  sketched 
in  a  few  well-chosen  words  an  attorney's  obligations 
to  his  client,  and  pointed  out  how  the  man  at  the 
bar,  by  betraying  those  who  trusted  him,  had  for- 
feited public  confidence.  But  most  impressive  of  all 
was  the  sympathy  of  this  highly  esteemed  lawyer 
for  the  young  colleague  in  disgrace.  "We  bid  you 
God-speed,"  he  concluded,  with  a  clasp  of  the  hand, 
"in  a  work  that  will  make  you  a  better  man."  And 
a  better  man  the  other  did  indeed  become.  Seeking 
out  a  new  field  beyond  the  borders  of  the  State,  he 
eventually  made  a  place  for  himself  there  as  an  hon- 
ored member  of  the  profession.10 

To  infer  from  either  of  these  two  episodes  that 
Lincoln  was  disposed  to  lord  it  over  his  less  experi- 
enced fellow  barristers  would  be  far  from  the  fact. 
How  fairly  he  treated  them  many  a  timid  beginner 
at  the  bar,  facing  him  as  opposing  counsel,  had  rea- 
son to  remember.  Not  only  did  his  unaffected  kind- 
ness set  the  young  men  at  their  ease  and  encourage 
their  efforts,  but  his  frank  concessions  met  them, 
as  we  have  seen,  more  than  halfway  in  establishing 
points  which  otherwise  might  have  been  hard  to 
make.  Nor  were  these  generous  little  acts  confined 
to  our  attorney's  dealings  with  juniors.  Any  of  the 
lawyers  pitted  against  him  might  have  had  similar 
experiences.  They  certainly  were  favored,  at  times, 
beyond  their  legal  rights,  and  that,  too,  on  occasions 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       93 

remote  from  the  publicity  of  the  court- room.  Atypi- 
cal instance  may  be  seen  in  the  letter  from  Lincoln 
to  an  associate  that  has  recently  come  to  light.  It 
read,  in  part:  "Herewith  I  return  the  notices  which 
I  will  thank  you  to  serve  and  return  as  before 
requested.  This  notice  is  not  required  by  law; 
and  I  am  giving  it  merely  because  I  think  fairness 
requires  it."  " 

Concerning  the  writer's  deportment  in  court,  the 
judge  before  whom  he  tried  probably  more  causes 
than  before  all  other  judges  combined,  tells  us: 
"Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  fairest  and  most  accommodat- 
ing of  practitioners,  granting  all  favors  which  he 
could  do  consistently  with  his  duty  to  his  client,  and 
rarely  availing  himself  of  an  unwary  oversight  of  his 
adversary."  12 

To  what  lengths  he  carried  this  equitable  proced- 
ure evinced  itself  during  the  trial  of  a  railroad  suit, 
at  which  counsel  on  the  other  side  were,  so  to  say, 
caught  napping.  The  case  having  gone  in  Lincoln's 
favor,  a  decision  was  about  to  be  given  for  the 
amount  claimed  by  his  client,  deducting  a  proved 
and  allowed  counter-claim,  when  the  successful  at- 
torney became  convinced  that  his  opponents  had  not 
proved  all  the  items  justly  due  them  as  offsets. 
He  promptly  called  attention  to  this  omission.  The 
judge,  agreeing  with  him,  noted  an  additional  allow- 
ance against  his  client,  and  pronounced  judgment 
accordingly.13  Even-handed  Justice  herself  could 
not  have  trimmed  the  balance  truer.  Here  was  "the 
square  deal"  incarnate.  And  its  spirit,  interesting 
to  observe,  animated  Abraham  Lincoln's  work-a- 


94  HONEST    ABE 

day  conduct,  in  this  most  trying  of  all  professions, 
half  a  century  or  so  before  another  distinguished 
American,  holding  an  ideal  aloft  for  the  admiration 
of  a  nation,  raised  the  expression  itself  to  the  dignity 
of  a  political  watchword. 

Lincoln's  tendency  to  concede  all  that  might 
reasonably  be  demanded  of  him  during  a  trial  man- 
ifested itself  chiefly  when  he  came  to  the  closing 
argument.  Here,  neither  the  law  nor  the  evidence 
could  be  noticed  to  suffer  the  slightest  perversion 
at  his  hands.  In  fact,  as  has  been  frequently  re- 
marked, the  statement  with  which  he  customarily 
began  a  summing-up  covered  the  case  for  the  other 
side  more  fully  and  more  forcibly  than  did  anything 
offered  by  his  opponent.  For  this  man's  conscience 
ruled  his  intellect.  In  his  make-up  were  happily 
blended  that  rare  faculty  which  can  see,  with  com- 
prehending eyes,  the  reverse  of  a  shield,  and  that 
still  rarer  courage  which  can  expose  the  unfavorable 
aspect  to  view,  without  flinching.  So  every  point 
scored  against  him  was  frankly  acknowledged. 
Giving  up  advantage  after  advantage,  —  even  vol- 
unteering admissions  which  seemed  well-nigh  fatal 
to  his  cause,  —  he  moved  steadily  forward  through 
the  opening  portion  of  such  an  argument,  like  a 
seasoned  philosopher  conducting  some  abstract  in- 
quiry. There  was  a  savor,  too,  of  passionless  logic 
about  what  he  said,  that  still  more  suggests  the 
ancient  scholar.  Indeed,  his  whole  bearing,  at  this 
stage,  reminds  one  of  the  serene  candor  and  the 
equally  placid  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  truth,  whereby  Thomas  Aquinas,  greatest  among 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       95 

schoolmen,  has  endeared  himself,  for  all  time,  to 
those  who  love  honest  reasoning. 

Nor  was  Lincoln's  sincerity  lost,  in  his  day,  upon 
those  who  were  best  qualified  to  appreciate  it.  The 
judges  of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court  rated  these 
habitual  acts  of  fair  play  at  their  true  value ;  and  one 
of  them,  Justice  Koerner,  speaking  for  the  whole 
bench,  once  said:  "We  always  admired  his  extreme 
fairness  in  stating  his  adversary's  case  as  well  as  his 
own."  14 

But  how  did  the  practice  impress  others?  As  if 
to  answer  this  query,  a  well-known  newspaper  man 
has  left  some  good  copy,  made  many  years  after  the 
event,  concerning  a  certain  trial  that  he  reported  at 
Chicago,  in  the  autumn  of  1857. 

"  It  was  a  railroad  case,"  says  Colonel  Hinton  who 
tells  the  story;  "and  as  I  was  reading  law  at  the 
time,  I  soon  became  interested  in  the  points  in- 
volved. I  remember  thinking  as  I  made  my  notes 
that  the  counsel  opposing  the  corporation  had  a  sure 
thing  of  it.  But  my  attention  was  soon  closely  at- 
tracted to  the  counsel  who  rose  to  reply.  '  The  home- 
liest man  I  ever  saw,'  was  the  thought  I  had.  When 
I  heard  a  judge  speak  to  him  as  'Mr.  Lincoln,'  I  re- 
called having  heard  the  name  before.  A  reporter 
present  told  me  that  he  was  from  Springfield,  and  at 
once  I  remembered  the  Boston  mention  of  him,  and 
my  interest  became  alert.  The  one  impression  I  re- 
tain apart  from  the  striking  and  quaint  appearance 
he  presented,  was  the  fact  that  in  his  opening  re- 
marks he  seemed  to  me  to  be  'giving  his  case  away' 
by  the  remarkably  lucid  and  vigorous  manner  in 


96  HONEST    ABE 

which  by  recapitulating  the  summary  of  the  pre- 
vious argument  he  presented  the  argument  and  law 
of  his  opponent.  With  the  'freshness'  of  a  cock- 
sure student,  I  at  once  concluded  he  was  a  beaten 
man."  15 

The  colonel  goes  on  to  relate  how  "the  homeliest 
man"  was  not  "beaten,"  but  that  is  another  story. 
Sticking  to  our  text,  we  find  ourselves  wondering 
what  Lincoln's  clients,  generally  speaking,  thought 
of  him,  at  about  this  stage  in  the  proceedings.  And 
it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  sometimes  they 
"trembled  with  apprehension"  for  the  verdicts 
which  his  tactics  seemingly  endangered.16  Nor  was 
this  feeling  of  alarm  confined  to  clients.  Some  of  his 
colleagues  at  the  bar,  when  concerned  with  him  in 
the  trying  of  causes,  could  never  quite  accustom 
themselves  to  sit  tranquilly  by,  while  he  bestowed 
important  admissions  on  counsel  for  the  other  side. 
His  liberality  toward  adverse  evidence,  that  so  dis- 
turbed Mr.  Whitney,  as  the  reader  will  remember, 
must  have  seemed  even  more  reprehensible  to  such 
associates  when  it  cropped  out  in  the  final  argument. 

A  striking  instance  of  this  occurred  during  the 
famous  Rock  Island  Bridge  litigation  which,  despite 
certain  differences  in  the  telling,  may  have  been  the 
case  that  Colonel  Hinton  reported.  The  action  was 
tried  at  Chicago,  in  September,  1857,  before  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court,  the  honorable  John 
McLean  presiding.  It  had  grown  out  of  the  clash 
between  the  boatmen  on  the  Mississippi  River  and 
the  railroad  people  who  maintained  a  recently 
erected  bridge  across  that  stream,  from  Rock  Island, 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       97 

Illinois,  to  Davenport,  Iowa.  When  the  structure 
was  planned,  several  years  previous,  efforts  to  place 
legal  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  project  had  been 
made  without  success.  And  upon  the  completion  of 
the  undertaking,  this  quarrel  appears  to  have  raged 
more  fiercely  than  ever,  until  it  had  culminated  in 
the  destruction  of  a  steamboat,  the  Effie  Afton, 
which  came  to  grief  on  piers  of  the  bridge.  Her  own- 
ers had  promptly  brought  suit  for  damages.  The 
case  was  entitled,  "  Kurd  et  al.  vs.  The  Railroad  and 
Bridge  Company,"  but  these  words  meant  more 
than  met  the  eye.  Behind  the  litigants  themselves 
were  arrayed  powerful  antagonists.  The  action 
might  not  incorrectly  have  been  called,  "River 
Traffic  versus  Railroads,"  or  "The  Mississippi 
Valley  versus  The  Far  West,"  or  "St.  Louis  versus 
Chicago";  for  it  involved  vital  points,  on  which 
turned  the  future  welfare  of  all  these  conflicting 
interests.  Their  struggle  naturally  focussed  the 
attention  of  a  vast  region  on  the  trial,  and  when 
proceedings  began,  men  from  all  over  the  West 
crowded  the  Federal  court-room. 

The  Chicago  and  Rock  Island  Railroad  Company, 
through  its  attorney,  Norman  B.  Judd,  had  retained 
Lincoln,  among  others,  as  counsel  for  the  defense. 
There  was  some  favorable  comment  on  the  skill  with 
which  he  brought  out  the  evidence;  but  when  he  dis- 
cussed this  evidence,  in  the  closing  argument,  one 
of  his  associates,  Joseph  Knox,  was  not  so  pleased. 
In  fact,  that  gentleman  became  alarmed  to  such  a 
degree  over  what  Lincoln  conceded  that  when  court 
adjourned  for  the  day,  before  the  speech  was  fin- 


98  HONEST    ABE 

ished,  he  despaired  of  success.  His  indignation 
found  vent  in  a  talk  with  Judd. 

"Lincoln  has  lost  the  case  for  us,"  he  said.  "The 
admissions  he  made  in  regard  to  the  currents  in  the 
Mississippi  at  Rock  Island  and  Moline  will  convince 
the  court  that  a  bridge  at  that  point  will  always  be  a 
serious  and  constant  detriment  to  navigation  on  the 
river." 

' '  Wait  until  you  hear  the  conclusion  of  his  speech, " 
replied  Mr.  Judd.  "You  will  find  his  admission  is 
a  strong  point  instead  of  a  weak  one,  and  on  it  he 
will  found  a  strong  argument  that  will  satisfy  you." 17 

So  indeed  it  proved  to  be.  Before  he  closed,  Lin- 
coln did  his  own  side  ample  justice,  and  demon- 
strated to  a  victorious  conclusion  that,  currents  or 
no  currents,  one  man  has  as  good  a  right  to  cross 
over  a  river  as  another  has  to  sail  up  and  down.18 

Judd  was  not  the  only  colleague  who  appraised 
this  method  at  its  full  value.  Leonard  Swett,  shar- 
ing with  our  straightforward  advocate  the  leader- 
ship, as  some  thought,  of  the  Eighth  Circuit,  and 
conducting  many  causes,  now  with  him  now  against 
him,  had  learned,  when  on  the  opposing  side,  to  be 
wary  of  gifts  frorn  Lincoln's  hands. 

"If  his  adversary,"  said  Swett,  "didn't  under- 
stand him,  he  would  wake  up  in  a  few  moments, 
finding  he  had  feared  the  Greeks  too  late,  and  wake 
up  to  find  himself  beaten.  He  was  'wise  as  a  ser- 
pent '  in  the  trial  of  a  case,  but  I  have  got  too  many 
scars  from  his  blows  to  certify  that  he  was  '  harmless 
as  a  dove.'  When  the  whole  thing  is  unraveled  the 
adversary  begins  to  see  that  what  he  was  so  blandly 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS       99 

giving  away,  was  simply  what  he  could  n't  get  and 
keep.  By  giving  away  six  points  and  carrying  the 
seventh,  he  carried  his  case;  and,  the  whole  case 
hanging  on  the  seventh,  he  traded  away  everything 
which  would  give  him  the  least  aid  in  carrying  that. 
Any  one  who  took  Lincoln  for  a  simple-minded  man 
would  very  soon  wake  up  on  his  back,  in  a  ditch."  19 
This  rather  cynical  analysis  of  the  situation  is  sig- 
nificant. It  discloses  the  controlling  factor  upon 
which  almost  every  case  at  bar  turns  as  on  a  hinge. 
To  discern  with  precision  where  that  pivotal  point 
lies  may  perhaps  be  deemed  the  prime  requisite  for 
a  successful  pleader.  The  converse  is  of  almost  equal 
importance.  "Never  plead  what  you  need  not," 
said  Lincoln,  "lest  you  oblige  yourself  to  prove  what 
you  cannot."  20  And  when,  as  in  his  practice,  the 
vital  issue  is  pressed  home,  only  after  all  vulnerable 
positions  have  been  squarely  surrendered,  the  effect 
must  seem  at  times  well-nigh  irresistible.  Even 
courts  cannot  help  yielding  something  to  one  who 
yields  so  much.  And  what  he  holds  on  to  naturally 
prevails,  with  double  force,  by  reason  of  what  he  has 
given  away.  Addressing  himself,  then,  to  hearers 
thus  favorably  disposed,  Lincoln's  final  statement  of 
his  own  side  left  little  need  for  argument.  In  fact, 
they  said  of  him,  —  as  has  from  time  to  time  been 
said  of  Lord  Mansfield,  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
Daniel  Webster,  and  less  distinguished  lawyers  en- 
dowed with  equal  power,  —  his  statement  of  a  case 
was  worth  the  argument  of  another  man.  For  here 
again,  the  precision,  clearness,  and  veracity  of  his 
mental  operations  came  into  play.  He  would  disen- 


ioo  HONEST    ABE 

tangle  a  complicated  matter  step  for  step,  until  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth, 
stood  revealed  to  all.  It  was  as  if  each  successive 
word  were  set  in  place,  after  the  manner  of  Hugh 
Miller's  master,  the  Cromarty  mason,  who  "made 
conscience  of  every  stone  he  laid." 

Lincoln's  conscience  withal  did  double  duty.  His 
fealty  to  the  cause  of  justice  was  not  allowed  to 
crowd  out  an  ever-present  sense  of  what  he  owed  his 
client.  In  only  rare  instances  and  then,  it  is  true,  to 
that  client's  detriment,  as  we  have  seen,  did  these 
obligations  clash.  When  they  harmonized,  the  ad- 
vocate did  not  spare  himself.  Nor  did  his  theory 
concerning  the  essentials  of  a  case  betray  him  into 
omissions.  Making  an  argument  once  before  one  of 
the  higher  courts,  he  gave  an  elaborate  history  of 
the  law  governing  the  matter  in  question.  It  was  a 
masterly  discourse,  prepared  with  much  care,  but  as 
his  partner  thought,  wholly  unnecessary.  On  their 
way  home,  Mr.  Herndon,  who  tells  the  story,  asked 
Mr.  Lincoln  why  he  "went  so  far  back  in  the  history 
of  the  law,"  adding  a  surmise  that  the  court  knew  it 
all. 

"That's  where  you're  mistaken,"  was  the  instant 
reply.  "  I  dared  not  trust  the  case  on  the  presump- 
tion that  the  court  knows  everything.  In  fact,  I 
argued  it  on  the  presumption  that  the  court  did  n't 
know  anything." 21 

There  are,  sooth  to  say,  judicial  decisions  which 
almost  seem  to  justify  such  precautions.  And  we 
find  ourselves  wondering  whether  the  speaker  knew 
that  venerable  anecdote  of  the  counsel  who,  when 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      101 

interrupted  by  a  wearied  Supreme  Court  Justice 
with  the  remark,  "You  must  give  this  court  credit 
for  knowing  something,"  replied,  "That's  exactly 
the  mistake  I  made  in  the  court  below." 

Lincoln  was  himself,  according  to  certain  col- 
leagues, occasionally  stopped  from  the  bench,  but 
for  quite  a  different  reason.  His  mere  statement  of  a 
matter  sounded  so  clear  and  convincing  that  judges 
would,  at  times,  interpose  before  he  could  go  on  to  his 
argument,  with  some  such  words  as:  "If  that  is  the 
case,  Brother  Lincoln,  we  will  hear  the  other  side."  22 

Nor  was  he  less  felicitous  in  putting  a  winning 
touch  to  the  confidence  of  juries.  When  he  faced 
them,  at  last,  his  lucid,  even-handed  methods  pro- 
duced their  strongest  effects.  "If  I  can  free  this 
case,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "from  technicalities  and 
get  it  properly  swung  to  the  jury,  I'll  win  it."  23 
To  that  end,  the  essential  facts  were  so  cogently  pre- 
sented that  they  became  almost  self-evident.  And 
the  jurymen,  following  a  train  of  thought  which  re- 
duced simplicity  to  its  lowest  terms,  easily  fancied 
themselves  in  the  speaker's  place,  as  though  they, 
not  he,  were  making  the  statement.  His  anxiety  to 
be  right  quickened  their  anxiety  to  do  right.  It 
was  seemingly  their  trial,  not  his;  and  he  conducted 
himself  as  if  he  were  only  assisting  them  to  do  their 
duty.  Every  one  of  the  twelve  "free  and  lawful 
men,"  even  those  who  were  least  intelligent,  appear 
to  have  felt  this.  Indeed,  throughout  what  Lincoln 
said  in  addressing  them,  may  be  discerned  a  purpose, 
above  all  things,  to  impress  the  truth  upon  that  most 
important  of  all  the  personages  in  a  court,  the  dullest 


102  HONEST    ABE 

occupant  of  the  jury-box.  And  how  well  he  suc- 
ceeded, on  the  whole,  is  a  matter  of  common  repute. 
Some  contemporaries  went  to  the  extreme  of  saying 
—  if  we  may  credit  one  of  them  —  that  they  could 
not  "expect  a  favorable  verdict  in  any  case  where 
Lincoln  was  opposing  counsel,  as  his  simple  state- 
ments of  the  facts  had  more  weight  with  the  jury 
than  those  of  the  witnesses."  24 

Such  a  result  did,  it  is  true,  come  about  in  at  least 
one  instance  —  the  trial  of  a  tramp  accused  of  mur- 
der. No  one  had  seen  the  deed,  but  the  evidence, 
which  proved  to  be  purely  circumstantial,  pointed 
strongly  toward  the  prisoner.  As  the  crime  was  of  a 
brutal  nature,  feeling  ran  high  against  him.  A  friend- 
less stranger,  in  the  midst  of  popular  clamor,  his 
conviction  appeared  to  be  a  foregone  conclusion; 
and  Lincoln,  who  was  appointed  to  defend,  seem- 
ingly made  but  little  headway.  He  contented  him- 
self with  eliciting  from  the  witnesses  full  statements 
of  what  they  saw  or  knew.  Evading  nothing,  sup- 
pressing nothing,  making  no  attempt  to  confuse 
those  who  testified  or  to  present  matters  other  than 
they  were,  he  helped  the  prosecuting  attorney  to 
bring  out  all  the  facts.  When  his  time  came  for  ad- 
dressing the  jury,  he  called  attention  to  the  absence 
of  direct  evidence.  Frankly  reviewing  all  the  circum- 
stances, and  weighing  what  seemed  to  prove  the  de- 
fendant's guilt  with  what  made  for  his  innocence,  he 
concluded  in  about  the  following  language:  "I  have 
looked  this  matter  over  fully,  candidly ;  and  while  I 
concede  that  the  testimony  bears  against  my  client, 
I  am  not  sure  that  he  is  guilty.  Are  you?" 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      103 

The  prisoner  was  acquitted,  and  properly  so,  for 
some  time  thereafter  the  real  criminal  was  brought 
to  justice. 

"How  different  would  have  been  the  conduct  of 
many  lawyers!"  exclaimed  the  late  Justice  Brewer, 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  as  he  told  his 
story.  "Some  would  have  striven  to  lead  the  judge 
into  technical  errors,  with  a  view  to  an  appeal  to  a 
higher  court.  Others  would  have  become  hoarse 
in  denunciation  of  witnesses,  decrying  the  lack  of 
positive  testimony  and  dwelling  on  the  marvelous 
virtue  of  a  reasonable  doubt.  The  simple,  straight- 
forward way  of  Lincoln,  backed  by  the  confidence 
of  the  jury,  won."  25 

That  combination  was  hard  to  beat.  Frequent 
repetitions  of  it  gave  Lincoln,  in  time,  a  reputation 
which  seems  almost  unique.  There  have  been  advo- 
cates with  more  notable  gifts  of  learning  and  elo- 
quence, than  he  could  command;  but  few  among 
them,  if  any,  moved  through  our  courts  with  so  large 
a  measure  of  esteem.  Yet  it  is  going  too  far  to  say, 
as  Judge  Caton  did,  that  "no  one  ever  accused  him 
of  taking  an  underhanded  or  unfair  advantage,  in 
the  whole  course  of  his  professional  career." 26  True, 
he  was  a  general  favorite  on  the  circuit.  His  fair,  not 
to  say  generous,  tactics  made  for  good  feeling;  and 
to  him,  perhaps,  least  of  all  that  eager  company, 
could  have  been  applied  the  ancient  aspersion  of  the 
lawyer  as  a  brawler  for  hire.  Moreover,  the  "I  am 
holier  than  thou  "  pose,  whereby  the  honored  coun- 
selor sometimes  seeks  to  place  less  reputable  oppo- 
nents at  a  disadvantage,  was  wholly  absent  from  his 


104  HONEST    ABE 

demeanor.  No  practitioners,  however  low  or  dis- 
credited, met  here  with  discourtesy.  Indeed,  unless 
an  adversary  misbehaved  in  the  particular  case  on 
trial,  Lincoln  never  uttered  a  word  of  personal  re- 
proach which  might  unduly  prejudice  the  jury. 
"Hence,"  we  are  told,  "the  meanest  man  at  the  bar 
always  paid  great  deference  and  respect  to  him."  27 
But  he  did  not  wholly  escape  the  penalty  of  his 
successes.  Some  colleagues  —  and  they  should  have 
known  better — gave  way  to  jealousy.  Those  who 
sit  in  the  shadow  of  the  prophet's  mantle  do  not 
always  see  the  prophet.  A  few  opponents  were  even 
known  to  question  Lincoln's  sincerity.  His  candor 
was  in  their  eyes  a  cloak  for  trickery,  his  unconven- 
tional manner  a  means  of  springing  surprises  on  the 
unwary,  and  his  apparent  fair  dealing  a  bait  for 
luring  unsuspecting  adversaries  to  defeat.  That  an 
attorney  smarting  under  a  sense  of  failure  might 
now  and  then  have  felt  this  way  is  not  surprising. 
Fresh  from  the  reading  of  Mr.  Swett's  graphic  little 
sketch,  which  left  the  vanquished  one  floundering 
"on  his  back  in  a  ditch,  "we  can  appreciate  the  full 
force  of  a  statement  made  within  recent  years  by 
Ezra  Morton  Prince,  a  Bloomington  attorney.  Re- 
ferring to  these  scattering  charges  of  unfairness,  Mr. 
Prince,  who  attended  many  trials  in  the  old  circuit 
days,  says:  "The  truth  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  a 
genius  for  seeing  the  real  point  in  a  case  at  once, 
and  aiming  steadily  at  it  from  the  beginning  of  a 
trial  to  the  end.  The  issue  in  most  cases  lies  in  very 
narrow  compass,  and  the  really  great  lawyer  disre- 
gards everything  not  directly  tending  to  that  issue. 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      105 

The  mediocre  advocate  is  apt  to  miss  the  crucial 
point  in  his  case  and  is  easily  diverted  with  minor 
matters,  and  when  his  eyes  are  opened  he  is  usually 
angry  and  always  surprised.  Mr.  Lincoln  instinc- 
tively saw  the  kernel  of  every  case  at  the  outset, 
never  lost  sight  of  it,  and  never  let  it  escape  the  jury. 
That  was  the  only  trick  I  ever  saw  him  play."  28 

If  anybody  knew  Abraham  Lincoln  to  do  a  dis- 
honorable act,  during  all  these  busy  years  in  the 
courts,  evidence  to  prove  it  has  not  been  forthcom- 
ing. And  there  have  been  iconoclasts  enough  at 
work  on  his  record  to  insure  the  telling  of  the  story, 
had  such  an  incident  taken  place. 

One  opponent  did,  it  must  be  said,  in  the  heat  of  a 
certain  famous  trial,  accuse  him  of  duplicity.  The 
case  was  that  of  young  Quinn  Harrison,  sometimes 
called  "  Peachy,"  arraigned  for  the  murder  of  Greek 
Crafton,  a  student  in  Lincoln's  office.  While  quar- 
reling over  some  political  question,  they  had  come 
to  blows,  and  Crafton,  sustaining  a  knife-wound, 
had  died  within  a  few  days.  The  young  men,  besides 
being  close  friends,  had  been  connected  by  marriage. 
Their  families  were  highly  regarded.  The  prisoner's 
people  especially  enjoyed  good  repute,  and  that  his 
grandfather  was  Dr.  Peter  Cartwright,  the  noted 
Methodist  circuit-rider,  added  not  a  little  to  popular 
sympathy  in  his  behalf.  Notwithstanding  all  this, 
strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  secure  a  conviction. 
The  regular  prosecuting  attorney,  Amzi  McWil- 
liams,  was  assisted  by  John  M.  Palmer  and  John  A. 
McClernand.  The  defense  had  been  entrusted  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Stephen  T.  Logan,  William  H. 


106  HONEST    ABE 

Herndon,  and  Shelby  M.  Cullom.  Able  as  the  de- 
fendant's counsel  were,  they  achieved  but  slight 
progress,  for  a  time,  in  overcoming  the  strong  case 
made  out  against  their  client.  It  was  only  when 
Lincoln  put  Harrison's  grandfather  on  the  stand 
that  the  tide  seemed  to  turn.  Under  his  exami- 
ner's sympathetic  guidance,  the  venerable  preacher 
evinced  how  fondly  he  loved  the  unfortunate  young 
man,  and  told  the  story  of  his  own  final  interview 
with  Crafton  —  a  touching  scene,  in  which  the  dying 
youth  charged  Cartwright  to  tell  "Peachy"  that  he 
forgave  him.  This  formed  the  basis  of  an  appeal  for 
mercy,  in  Lincoln's  closing  argument.  So  wrought 
up  was  the  speaker  by  the  pathos  of  the  whole 
affair  that  he  put  aside  his  dislike  of  such  attempts 
to  play  on  the  sympathies  of  juries,  and  made  an 
eloquent  plea  for  a  verdict  which  should  not  set 
at  naught  the  slain  man's  act  of  forgiveness.  This 
speech  made  a  profound  impression.  It  had  moved 
those  who  listened,  in  fact,  to  a  degree  which  dis- 
quieted the  prosecuting  attorneys.  One  of  them,  as 
he  arose  to  reply,  was  determined  that  the  effect 
must  be  counteracted,  at  all  hazards. 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "you  have  heard 
Mr.  Lincoln — 'Honest  Abe  Lincoln,'  they  call 
him,  I  believe.  And  I  suppose  you  think  you  have 
heard  the  honest  truth  —  or  at  least  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln honestly  believes  what  he  has  told  you  to  be 
the  truth.  I  tell  you,  he  believes  no  such  thing. 
That  frank,  ingenuous  face  of  his,  as  you  are  weak 
enough  to  suppose,  those  looks  and  tones  of  such 
unsophisticated  simplicity,  those  appeals  to  your 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      107 

minds  and  consciences  as  sworn  jurors,  are  all  as- 
sumed for  the  occasion,  gentlemen,  —  all  a  mask, 
gentlemen.  You  have  been  listening  for  the  last 
hour  to  an  actor,  who  knows  well  how  to  play  the 
role  of  honest  seeming,  for  effect." 

At  this  moment,  amidst  breathless  stillness,  Lin- 
coln stood  up.  He  was  deeply  moved.  It  seemed  as 
if  every  line  of  his  gaunt  features  twitched  with 
pain.  Facing  the  speaker  he  said : ' '  You  have  known 
me  for  years,  and  you  know  that  not  a  word  of  that 
language  can  be  truthfully  applied  to  me." 

The  prosecutor  changed  color,  hesitated  a  mo- 
ment, and  then,  his  better  nature  gaining  the  mas- 
tery, responded  with  much  feeling:  "Yes,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, I  do  know  it,  and  I  take  it  all  back." 

Many  of  those  who  were  present  could  not  resist 
the  impulse  to  applaud,  as  the  two  men  approached 
each  other  and  shook  hands.  The  trial  then  went  on 
to  its  anticipated  conclusion — Harrison's  acquittal.29 

On  another  occasion  Lincoln  took  quite  a  different 
method  of  meeting  an  unfair  attack.  His  opponent 
in  a  case,  while  selecting  the  jury,  challenged  a  man 
because  he  was  acquainted  with  counsel  on  the  other 
side.  Such  an  objection  appears  to  have  been  re- 
garded, in  those  days,  as  a  reflection  upon  a  lawyer's 
honor.  So  Judge  Davis,  who  was  presiding  at  the 
time,  sharply  overruled  the  challenge.  Yet  when 
Lincoln's  turn  came  to  examine  the  panel,  he  gravely 
followed  the  other's  lead  and  asked  them,  one  by 
one,  whether  they  were  acquainted  with  his  adver- 
sary. After  several  had  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
however,  the  judge  interrupted  him. 


io8  HONEST    ABE 

"Now,  Mr.  Lincoln,"  he  said  severely,  "you  are 
wasting  time.  The  mere  fact  that  a  juror  knows 
your  opponent  does  not  disqualify  him." 

"No,  Your  Honor,"  retorted  the  advocate;  "but 
I  am  afraid  some  of  the  gentlemen  may  not  know 
him,  which  would  place  me  at  a  disadvantage." 30 

In  only  one  other  notable  instance,  so  far  as  the 
writer's  knowledge  goes,  has  Lincoln's  integrity  at 
the  bar  been  directly  questioned.  Charges  of  fabri- 
cating certain  important  evidence  to  save  his  client 
grew  out  of  a  sensational  episode  in  the  camp- 
meeting  murder  trial.  The  case  was  that  of  William 
(Duffy)  Armstrong  indicted  for  the  killing  of  James 
Preston  Metzker,  during  a  brawl  near  the  Salt  Creek 
camp-grounds,  a  few  miles  from  Mason  City,  on 
the  night  of  Saturday,  August  29,  1857.  "Duff" 
and  "  Pres,"  as  the  two  young  men  were  called,  after 
drinking  heavily  with  other  wild  companions  of  their 
kind,  quarreled.  In  the  fracas  which  ensued  late 
that  same  night,  Armstrong  and  a  friend  named 
James  Henry  Norris,  who  came  to  his  assistance, 
had,  it  was  alleged,  inflicted  injuries  on  Metzker 
that,  several  days  later,  proved  to  be  fatal.  A  true 
bill  for  murder  had  been  found  against  both  men. 
And  Norris,  brought  first  to  trial,  at  Havana  in 
Mason  County,  had,  upon  a  verdict  of  manslaughter, 
gone  to  prison  for  eight  years.  His  comrade's  case 
looked  darker  still.  Public  sentiment  condemned 
"Duff"  out  of  hand;  and  from  all  sides  came  de- 
mands that  the  law  should  be  enforced  against  him 
in  its  utmost  rigor.  Then,  as  if  to  make  matters 
worse,  his  father  died.  The  widowed  mother,  strug- 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      109 

gling  alone  for  her  boy's  life,  managed  to  secure  the 
services  of  Walker  and  Lacey,  local  lawyers  at  Ha- 
vana; but  they  could  hold  forth  only  slender  pros- 
pects of  success.  At  this  juncture  news  of  the  trou- 
ble reached  Lincoln.  Occupied  though  he  was,  by 
that  time,  over  the  affairs  of  an  extensive  practice 
and  the  demands  of  a  growing  political  leadership, 
this  tragedy  claimed  his  attention.  He  appears  to 
have  been  deeply  moved  by  the  father's  death,  as 
well  as  by  the  son's  peril.  For  that  father  was  the 
Jack  Armstrong  of  Clary's  Grove  fame,  with  whom 
he  had  wrestled  and  chummed  during  the  by-gone 
New  Salem  days;  that  mother  was  the  Aunt  Han- 
nah, in  whose  kitchen  he  had  many  a  time  been 
made  welcome ;  and  her  baby,  which  he  had  rocked 
to  sleep  while  she  cooked  him  a  meal,  was  the  pris- 
oner who,  now  arrived  at  manhood's  estate,  lay  in 
jail  awaiting  trial  for  a  capital  crime.  In  this,  her 
hour  of  dire  need,  the  poor  woman  had  naturally 
turned  to  their  old  friend.  Going  to  his  office  at 
Springfield,  she  told  the  whole  distressing  story,  and 
received  instant  promise  of  help. 

"Abe,"  said  Hannah,  as  one  of  her  sons  relates, 
"I  can't  pay  you  much  money  or  money  of  any 
account,  but  I  can  pay  you  a  little." 

To  which  he  replied:  "You  do  not  need  to  pay 
me  a  cent,  for  my  services  are  free  to  the  family  as 
long  as  I  live."  31 

So  it  happened  that  when  the  trial,  by  a  change  of 
venue,  opened  the  following  spring  before  Justice 
James  Harriott,  at  Beardstown,  in  the  less  preju- 
diced atmosphere  of  Cass  County,  Lincoln  led  for 


no  HONEST    ABE 

the  defense.  He  came  into  court  with  faith  in  his 
client.  According  to  "Duff's"  version  of  the  affair, 
Metzker  had  been  the  aggressor,  and  the  fight,  as 
far  as  these  two  were  concerned,  had  been  with  their 
bare  fists  only.  Yet  how  could  the  jury  be  convinced 
of  this?  Such  evidence,  indeed,  as  was  presented 
against  Armstrong  at  the  outset  did  not  appear  to 
be  very  damaging ;  but  "when  the  prosecution  called 
its  principal  witness,  Charles  Allen,  a  painter  from 
Petersburg,  matters  became  serious.  He  testified 
that  he  saw  the  defendant  strike  Metzker  on  the 
head  with  a  slung-shot.  Under  cross-examination, 
Allen  averred  that  the  assault  occurred  at  about 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  night.  When  asked  to  explain 
how,  despite  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  he  could  so 
distinctly  have  seen  what  took  place,  the  witness 
stated  that  there  was  a  bright  moon,  nearly  full, 
and  "about  in  the  same  place  that  the  sun  would  be 
at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning."  This  answer,  to  use 
the  language  of  the  day,  apparently  put  the  hang- 
man's noose  around  Armstrong's  neck.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  his  alert  counsel  however,  it  was  just  what 
undid  that  ghastly  cravat.  For,  profiting  by  the 
testimony  given  at  previous  hearings,  Lincoln  had 
prepared  to  meet  that  very  situation.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  trial  he  had  placed  in  the  keeping  of  Sheriff 
James  A.  Dick  an  almanac  —  probably  Goudy's  — 
for  the  year  of  the  homicide.  This  document  was 
now  produced  by  that  officer,  at  the  request  of  the 
defense,  and  put  in  evidence.  It  proved,  as  Lincoln 
pointed  out,  that  on  the  night  in  question  the  moon 
had  but  slightly  passed  the  first  quarter,  that  it  gave 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      111 

practically  no  light  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  that  its 
computed  time  for  setting  was  at  about  midnight.32 
The  effect  of  this  announcement^  seemed  almost 
magical.  At  one  stroke  of  the  master  hand,  Allen's 
spurious  moonshine  had  turned  into  a  lightning 
flash,  by  which  the  weakness  of  the  prosecution 
stood  revealed.  There  was  an  immediate  revulsion 
of  feeling  in  the  prisoner's  favor.  His  counsel  were 
as  quick  to  seize  upon  the  lucky  turn.  Closing  for 
the  defense,  Mr.  Lincoln  addressed  the  jury  in  words 
of  which  his  associate,  Mr.  Walker,  afterwards  said, 
"A  more  powerful  and  eloquent  speech  never,  in  my 
opinion,  fell  from  the  lips  of  man."  The  perjured 
testimony,  as  well  as  the  discrepancies  in  the  evi- 
dence, were  dwelt  upon  by  the  speaker  with  tell- 
ing effect.  So  moved  was  he,  moreover,  by  his 
ancient  gratitude  to  "Duff's"  parents,  and  by 
his  own  manifest  belief,  in  the  young  man's  inno- 
cence of  willful  murder,  that  the  tears  which  blurred 
his  eyes  as  he  spoke,  no  less  than  the  sympathetic 
earnestness  of  his  appeal,  touched  responsive  chords 
among  the  wrought-up  jurymen.  They  did  not  de- 
liberate long.  When  they  came  in  with  their  verdict, 
the  foreman  said  "not  guilty,"  and  this  remarkable 
case  was  at  an  end. 

The  case,  indeed,  was  at  an  end,  but  the  talk 
about  it  was  not.  Lincoln's  dramatic  introduction  of 
that  almanac  appears  especially  to  have  stimulated 
the  gossip,  which  took  many  forms,  until  out  of  it 
all  in  some  unaccountable  way  emerged  a  strange 
canard.  According  to  this  tale  he  had  tricked  prose- 
cutors, court,  and  jury  by  palming  off  on  them,  as  of 


112  HONEST    ABE 

the  year  when  the  homicide  took  place,  a  calendar  of 
some  previous  year.  The  obvious  reply  to  this 
charge  is  that  there  would  have  been  no  reason 
whatever  for  such  a  piece  of  rascality.  An  almanac 
dated  1857  bears  out  —  as  any  one  may  satisfy 
himself  at  his  leisure  —  Lincoln's  contention  to  the 
letter,  and  he  could  not  have  bettered  his  case 
by  fraudulently  using  one  for  another  year.  Of 
course,  those  who  repeated  the  story  did  not  take 
the  trouble  to  consult  calendars,  but  a  moment's 
reflection  might  have  warned  them  of  its  absurdity. 
They  should  have  known  that  an  experienced  law- 
yer, whose  adherence  to  the  highest  ideals  of  his 
profession  had  by  this  time  passed  into  a  by- word, 
would  hardly  have  jeopardized  a  cherished  reputa- 
tion, to  say  nothing  of  his  standing  as  a  public  man, 
by  stooping  to  any  device  at  once  so  dishonorable 
and  so  futile.  For  it  is  not  to  be  credited  that  an 
exhibit  of  such  importance  could  pass  through  the 
hands  of  shrewd  opponents,  as  well  as  those  of  judge 
and  jurymen,  without  the  closest  scrutiny.  This 
scrutiny  did,  in  fact,  take  place. 

How  thorough  it  was  may  be  gathered  from  the 
recollections  of  Judge  Abram  Bergen,  who  happened 
to  be  present.  Attending  the  trial  shortly  after  his 
admission  to  practice,  he  sat  within  the  bar  behind 
both  groups  of  counsel  engaged  in  the  case,  and 
watched  what  took  place  with  the  acute  attention  of 
a  young  lawyer  studying  the  tactics  of  distinguished 
elders.  This  apparently  credible  witness,  touching 
on  the  accusation  of  fraud,  said:  — 

"When  Lincoln  finally  called  for  the  almanac  he 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      113 

exhibited  it  to  the  opposing  lawyers,  read  from  it, 
and  then  caused  it  to  be  handed  to  members  of  the 
jury  for  their  inspection.  I  heard  two  of  the  attor- 
neys for  the  State,  in  whispered  consultation,  raise 
the  question  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  almanac, 
and  they  ended  the  conference  by  sending  to  the 
office  of  the  clerk  of  the  court  for  another.  The  mes- 
senger soon  returned  with  the  statement  that  there 
was  no  almanac  of  1857  in  the  office.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  trial  occurred  in  1858  for  a  trans- 
action in  1857.  In  the  Presidential  campaign  soon 
following,  it  was  even  charged  that  Lincoln  must 
have  gone  around  and  purloined  all  the  almanacs 
in  the  court-house.  However,  I  well  remember  that 
another  almanac  was  procured  from  the  office  of 
Probate  Judge  Arenz,  in  the  same  building.  It  was 
brought  to  the  prosecuting  attorneys,  who  examined 
it,  and  compared  it  with  the  one  introduced  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  found  that  they  substantially  agreed, 
although  it  was  at  first  intimated  by  the  State's 
attorneys  that  they  had  found  some  slight  differ- 
ence. 

"All  this  I  personally  saw  and  heard,  and  it  is  as 
distinct  in  my  memory  as  if  it  had  occurred  but  yes- 
terday. No  intimation  was  made,  so  far  as  I  knew, 
that  there  was  any  fraud  in  the  use  of  the  almanac 
until  two  years  afterwards,  when  Lincoln  was  the 
nominee  of  the  Republican  Party  for  the  Presidency. 
In  that  year,  1860,  while  in  the  mountains  of  south- 
ern Oregon,  I  saw  in  a  Democratic  newspaper,  pub- 
lished at  St.  Louis,  an  article  personally  abusive  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  stating  that  he  was  no  statesman  and 


114  HONEST    ABE 

only  a  third-rate  lawyer ;  and  to  prove  the  deceptive 
and  dishonest  nature  of  the  candidate,  the  same  pa- 
per printed  an  indefinite  affidavit  of  one  of  the  jurors 
who  had  helped  to  acquit  Armstrong,  to  the  effect 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  made  fraudulent  use  of  the 
almanac  on  the  trial.  For  some  inexplicable  reason 
he  failed  to  call  this  pretended  knowledge  to  the 
attention  of  the  other  jurors  at  the  time  of  the  trial ; 
but  very  promptly  joined  in  the  verdict  of  acquit- 
tal, and  waited  two  years  before  giving  publicity  to 
what  would  at  the  proper  time  have  been  a  very 
important  piece  of  information. 

"Soon  after  this,  I  saw  an  affidavit  made  by  Mil- 
ton Logan,  the  foreman  of  the  jury,  that  he  person- 
ally examined  the  almanac  when  it  was  delivered  to 
the  jury,  and  particularly  noticed  that  it  was  for  the 
year  1857,  the  year  of  the  homicide.  I  had  a  better 
opportunity  than  any  of  the  jurors  to  see  and  hear 
all  that  was  publicly  and  privately  done  and  said 
by  the  attorneys  on  both  sides,  and  know  that  the 
almanacs  of  1857,  now  preserved  in  the  historical 
•and  other  public  libraries,  sustain  and  prove  to  the 
minute  all  that  was  claimed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  on  that 
trial,  as  to  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  moon;  al- 
though my  best  recollection  is  that  the  hour  of  the 
crime  was  claimed  to  be  about  midnight,  instead  of 
eleven  o'clock,  as  stated  in  many  of  the  books.  I  do 
not  know  that  this  calumny  was  ever  called  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  attention,  or  if  it  was  that  he  ever  took  the 
trouble  to  contradict  it.  He  might  well  have  pur- 
sued his  regular  habit  of  ignoring  such  things.  If  his 
public  and  private  conduct  and  his  reputation  as  a 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      115 

citizen  and  lawyer  were  not  sufficient  to  refute  the 
charges,  his  personal  denial  would  have  been  of  little 
more  avail."  33 

Judge  Bergen  may  be  right.  Perhaps,  in  fact,  no 
proofs  —  not  even  His  Honor's  own  lucid  state- 
ments, sustained  by  the  almanac  itself —  have  vigor 
enough  to  overtake  all  the  current  versions  of  this 
absurd  tale  and  retire  them  from  circulation.  In 
the  region  of  the  old  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit,  they 
are  still  passed  around  with  variations  to  suit  each 
teller's  fancy;  the  press  of  the  country  helps  them 
along  with  a  fresh  start  now  and  then ;  while  at  least 
one  law  book  —  a  treatise,  strange  to  say,  on 
"Facts"  —  throws  an  air  of  seeming  authenticity 
over  the  whole  foolish  business,  in  an  indexed  note 
which  relates  how  Lincoln  once  "procured  an  acquit- 
tal by  a  fraud."  34  Slander  they  say  can  travel 
around  the  world  before  Denial  has  had  time  to 
draw  on  his  boots.  This  particular  offender  has  been 
overtaken,  again  and  again;  but  the  story,  in  some 
guise,  goes  merrily  on.  It  evidently  belongs  among 
those  popular  myths  that  thrive  on  refutation.  To 
disprove  them  is  easy  enough;  to  destroy  them, 
as  experience  abundantly  shows,  is  quite  another 
matter.  Yet  "hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human 
breast";  and  one  more  lover  of  historic  justice  here 
tries  what  may  be  achieved  by  turning  the  search- 
light of  truth  full  upon  the  discrepant  features  of 
this  hoary  falsehood.35 

So  much  for  the  few  specific  instances  in  which 
doubts  have  been  publicly  cast  on  Lincoln's  high 
ideals  of  practice.  As  to  the  rest,  those  ideals  appar- 


ii6  HONEST    ABE 

ently  suffered  but  little  let-down  under  all  the  press 
and  stress  of  his  busy  years  at  the  Illinois  bar.  Yet 
he  was  not  immaculate.  A  thoroughly  human  man, 
loyal  to  his  clients  and  fond  of  his  friends,  he  may 
have  swerved  ever  so  slightly  to  the  right  or  the  left 
in  their  behalf,  when  no  breach  of  truth  or  law  was 
involved.  As  often  happens,  moreover,  with  men 
of  this  type  he  appears  to  have  been  in  such  cases 
his  own  severest  censor.  And  when  a  student  once 
asked  him  whether  the  legal  profession  could  stand 
the  test,  all  in  all,  of  the  golden  rule,  he  winced.  It 
happened  while  they  were  walking  together  one 
afternoon  after  a  trying  day  in  court.  The  young 
man,  Ralph  Emerson  by  name,  was  the  son  of  a  rev- 
erend instructor  in  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
and  some  things  that  he  had  seen  Western  lawyers 
do  disturbed  the  poise  of  his  New  England  con- 
science. If  such  acts  were  necessary  at  the  bar,  this 
would,  he  feared,  be  no  career  for  him.  In  his  per- 
plexity the  youth  determined  to  consult  the  eminent 
lawyer  who  walked  by  his  side.  Turning  suddenly 
to  him,  Emerson  said:  — 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  want  to  ask  you  a  question.  Is  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  practice  law  and  always  do  by 
others  as  he  would  be  done  by?" 

Lincoln's  head  dropped  upon  his  breast.  He 
walked  on  in  silence  for  a  long  time.  Then  came  a 
heavy  sigh,  and  when  he  did  finally  speak,  it  was 
about  another  matter. 

"I  had  my  answer,"  adds  Mr.  Emerson,  recalling 
the  incident.  "That  walk  turned  the  course  of  my 
life."  3« 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      117 

Precisely  what  this  little  scene  signified  is  not  easy 
to  determine;  but  that  it  was  of  weighty  import 
those  who  have  progressed  thus  far  with  us  in  the 
study  of  Lincoln's  character  will  hardly  believe. 
Still,  the  episode,  however  vague  and  inconclusive, 
must  not  be  omitted  from  any  appraisement  of  the 
man's  honesty.  Perhaps  one  explanation  of  that 
profound  sigh  is  to  be  sought  among  occasional  vic- 
tories, won  by  him  on  technicalities,  rather  than  on 
their  merits.  And  then,  again,  a  too  sensitive  mem- 
ory may,  at  the  moment,  have  put  Lincoln  in  mind 
of  certain  acts  which,  while  they  hardly  measured 
up  to  the  standard  set  by  the  Golden  Rule,  were 
not  by  any  means  dishonorable.  They  had  their 
origin,  to  some  extent,  in  his  distaste  for  trivial  liti- 
gation, but  still  more,  in  his  disapproval  of  those 
"contentious  suits  which,"  a  great  Lord  Chancellor 
long  ago  declared,  "ought  to  be  spewed  out,  as  the 
surfeit  of  courts."  How  Lincoln  dissuaded  his  own 
clients  from  bringing  actions  of  this  kind  has  already 
been  set  forth.  It  may  be  needless  to  add  that  when 
situations  were  reversed,  and  they  were  the  objects 
of  such  prosecutions  by  others,  he  willingly  appeared 
in  their  behalf.  Then  woe  to  the  plaintiffs  if  the 
facts  afforded  but  the  slightest  scope  for  the  play 
of  his  peculiar  humor!  Under  his  droll  treatment, 
a  petty  cause,  though  not  without  merit,  might 
become  so  ridiculous  as  to  leave  the  claimant  in  a 
plight,  from  which  nothing  but  an  appeal  to  that 
same  beneficent  rule  of  ethical  conduct  could  have 
saved  him.  Indeed,  by  these  very  tactics,  Lincoln  is 
said  to  have  laughed  more  jury  cases  out  of  court 


ii8  HONEST    ABE 

than  any  other  attorney  on  the  circuit.  How  he  went 
about  it  was  well  illustrated  in  a  trial  recalled  by 
Judge  Scott,  who  tells  this  story  concerning  the  affair : 
"A  young  lawyer  had  brought  an  action  in  tres- 
pass to  recover  damages  done  to  his  client's  growing 
crops  by  defendant's  hogs.  The  right  of  action,  un- 
der the  law  of  Illinois,  as  it  was  then,  depended  on 
the  fact  whether  plaintiff's  fence  was  sufficient  to 
turn  ordinary  stock.  There  was  some  little  conflict 
in  the  evidence  on  that  question,  but  the  weight 
of  the  testimony  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  plaintiff 
and  sustained  beyond  all  doubt  his  cause  of  action. 
Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  for  defendant.  There  was  no 
controversy  as  to  the  damage  done  by  defendant's 
stock.  The  only  thing  in  the  case  that  could  possibly 
admit  of  any  discussion  was  the  condition  of  plain- 
tiff's fence;  and  as  the  testimony  on  that  question 
seemed  to  be  in  favor  of  plaintiff,  and  as  the  sum 
involved  was  little  in  amount,  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  argue  the  case  seriously.  But 
by  way  of  saying  something  in  behalf  of  his  client, 
he  told  a  little  story  about  a  fence  that  was  so 
crooked  that  when  a  hog  went  through  an  opening 
in  it,  invariably  it  came  out  on  the  same  side  from 
whence  it  started.  His  description  of  the  confused 
look  of  the  hog  after  several  times  going  through  the 
fence  and  still  finding  itself  on  the  side  from  which 
it  had  started,  was  a  humorous  specimen  of  the  best 
story-telling.  The  effect  was  to  make  plaintiff's  case 
appear  ridiculous.  And  while  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not 
attempt  to  apply  the  story  to  the  case,  the  jury 
seemed  to  think  it  had  some  kind  of  application  to 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      119 

the  fence  in  controversy,  —  otherwise  he  would  not 
have  told  it,  —  and  shortly  returned  a  verdict  for 
the  defendant."  37 

There  are  other  accounts  of  similar  achievements. 
Perhaps  the  most  commonly  known  instance  was 
that  which  Lincoln  himself  took  pleasure  in  relating. 
According  to  one  version,  —  for  there  are  several,  — 
this  is  how  he  told  it :  — 

"I  was  retained  in  the  defense  of  a  man  charged 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace  with  assault  and  bat- 
tery. It  was  in  the  country,  and  when  I  got  to  the 
place  of  trial  I  found  the  whole  neighborhood  ex- 
cited, and  the  feeling  was  strong  against  my  client. 
I  saw  the  only  way  was  to  get  up  a  laugh  and  get  the 
people  in  a  good  humor.  It  turned  out  that  the  pros- 
ecuting witness  was  talkative.  He  described  the 
fight  at  great  length,  —  how  they  fought  /over  a 
field,  now  by  the  barn,  again  down  to  the  creek,  and 
over  it,  and  so  on.  I  asked  him,  on  cross-examina- 
tion, how  large  that  field  was.  He  said  it  was  ten 
acres.  He  knew  it  was,  for  he  and  some  one  else  had 
stepped  it  off  with  a  pole.  'Well,  then,'  I  inquired, 
1  was  not  that  the  smallest  crap  of  a  fight  you  have 
ever  seen  raised  off  of  ten  acres?'  The  hit  took. 
The  laughter  was  uproarious,  and  in  half  an  hour  the 
prosecuting  witness  was  retreating  amid  the  jeers  of 
the  crowd."  38 

There  is  no  more  effectual  way  to  dispose  of  a 
trifling  suit,  and  Lincoln's  ready  wit  was  apparently 
equal  to  all  such  demands.  Yet  his  sallies,  telling 
as  they  were,  left  no  stings  rankling  in  the  memory 
of  unfortunate  victims.  Those  who  emerged  beaten 


120  HONEST    ABE 

from  these  encounters  were  conscious  of  a  certain 
quaint  good  humor  in  the  man's  demeanor  that 
disarmed  resentment. 

He  was,  however,  not  so  genial  when  it  came  to 
another  type  of  litigants  —  the  dishonest  ones. 
They  met,  in  fact,  with  a  very  different  kind  of 
treatment.  For  Lincoln  saw  nothing  amusing  in 
their  devices,  and  as  they  could  not  be  laughed  out 
of  court,  his  efforts  were  directed  toward  shaming 
them  out.  An  occurrence  of  this  nature  took  place 
at  Tremont,  in  1847,  during  the  spring  term  of  the 
Tazewell  County  Court.  It  appears  that  an  old 
farmer  named  Case  had  sold  what  was  called  a 
"prairie  team,"  comprising  several  yoke  of  oxen  and 
a  plough,  to  two  young  men  known  as  the  Snow 
boys.  They  had  given  their  joint  note  in  settlement, 
but  when  it  became  due  they  had  refused  to  pay. 
The  account  was  placed  in  Lincoln's  hands  for  col- 
lection, and  he  promptly  brought  suit.  When  the 
case  came  to  trial,  this  note,  as  well  as  the  purchase 
of  a  team,  was  not  denied  by  the  lawyer  who  ap- 
peared for  the  defendants.  He  set  up  the  plea  of 
infancy,  however,  and  offered  to  prove  that  both 
brothers  were  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  at  the 
time  they  signed  the  note.  This  fact,  it  was  further- 
more claimed,  the  plaintiff  knew  when  the  transac- 
tion took  place.  To  all  of  which  Lincoln  quietly 
said :  "Yes,  I  guess  that  is  true,  and  we  will  admit  it." 

Things  looked  bad  for  farmer  Case.  "What!" 
thought  a  by-stander,  —  the  teller  of  the  story,  — 
"is  this  good  old  man,  who  confided  in  these  boys,  to 
be  wronged  in  this  way,  and  even  his  counsel,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  to  submit  in  silence!" 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      121 

After  the  principle  of  law  that  a  minor  may  avoid 
his  contracts  had  been  duly  cited,  Judge  Treat  who 
presided,  inquired:  — 

"Is  there  a  count  in  the  declaration  for  oxen  and 
plow,  sold  and  delivered?" 

"Yes,"  answered  Lincoln,  "and  I  have  only  two 
or  three  questions  to  ask  the  witness." 

Addressing  the  men  who  had  been  called  to  prove 
the  ages  of  the  defendants,  he  asked :  — 

"Where  is  that  prairie  team  now?" 

"On  the  farm  of  the  Snow  boys,"  was  his  answer. 

"Have  you  seen  any  one  breaking  prairie  with  it, 
lately?" 

"Yes,  the  Snow  boys  were  breaking  up  with  it, 
last  week." 

"How  old  are  the  boys  now?" 

"One  is  a  little  over  twenty-one,  and  the  other 
near  twenty- three." 

"That  is  all,"  said  Lincoln. 

Arising  slowly,  when  the  time  came  for  his  closing 
argument,  and  standing  in  an  awkward,  half-erect 
attitude,  he  began :  — 

"Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  are  you  willing  to  allow 
these  boys  to  begin  life  with  this  shame  and  disgrace 
attached  to  their  character?  If  you  are,  I  am  not. 
The  best  judge  of  human  character  that  ever  wrote, 
has  left  these  immortal  words  for  all  of  us  to  ponder: 

' '  Good  name  in  man  and  woman,  dear  my  lord, 
Is  the  immediate  jewel  of  their  souls. 
Who  steals  my  purse  steals  trash;  't  is  something,  nothing; 
T  was  mine,  't  is  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands; 
But  he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name, 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him, 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed.' " 


122  HONEST    ABE 

Then  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  and 
looking  down  upon  the  defendants  as  if  with  the 
compassion  of  an  older  brother,  while  his  long  right 
arm  was  extended  toward  their  attorney,  he  con- 
tinued :  — 

"Gentlemen,  these  boys  never  would  have  tried 
to  cheat  old  farmer  Case  out  of  these  oxen  and  that 
plow,  but  for  the  advice  of  counsel.  It  was  bad  ad- 
vice —  bad  in  morals  and  bad  in  law.  The  law  never 
sanctions  cheating,  and  a  lawyer  must  be  very  smart 
indeed  to  twist  it  so  that  it  will  seem  to  do  so.  The 
judge  will  tell  you,  what  your  own  sense  of  justice 
has  already  told  you,  that  these  Snow  boys,  if  they 
were  mean  enough  to  plead  the  baby  act,  when  they 
came  to  be  men  should  have  taken  the  oxen  and 
plow  back.  They  cannot  go  back  on  their  contract, 
and  also  keep  what  the  note  was  given  for." 

When  Lincoln  concluded  with  the  words,  "And 
now,  gentlemen,  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  set 
these  boys  right  before  the  world,"  —  he  almost 
seemed  to  be  pleading  for  the,  misguided  young  men 
rather  than  for  his  own  client.  So  it  impressed  the 
Snows  themselves.  Whatever  their  technical  rights 
may  have  been,  they  agreed  with  his  view,  as  well 
as  with  the  reputed  opinion  of  the  jury,  that  the 
account  ought  to  be  paid.  And  paid  it  was.39 

Whether  all  the  circumstances  attending  this 
affair  warranted  Mr.  Lincoln's  severe  arraignment  of 
the  defendants'  counsel  raises  a  nice  point  in  pro- 
fessional ethics.  Debts,  as  we  know,  may  sometimes 
be  barred  by  the  law  of  infancy,  still  oftener  by 
statutes  of  limitation.  The  debtors  in  such  cases 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      123 

have  been  provided  with  legal  defenses  behind 
which  honorable  men,  however,  disdain,  as  a  rule,  to 
seek  refuge.  They  realize  that  though  these  barriers 
shut  creditors  off  from  recovering  on  certain  kinds 
of  claims,  the  debts  themselves  remain  unpaid ;  and 
that  acts  which  are  intrinsically  wrong  cannot  be 
made  right,  however  they  may  be  sanctioned  by 
law  or  custom.  Still,  if  clients  insist  on  availing 
themselves  of  such  advantages,  their  attorneys  are 
bound,  in  the  judgment  of  not  a  few  high-minded 
lawyers,  to  interpose  the  required  pleas.  So  punc- 
tilious a  practitioner  as  Horace  Binney,  the  distin- 
guished Philadelphian,  whose  conceptions  of  duty 
have  already  served  us  with  some  exalted  standards, 
took  this  view.  He  once  conducted  the  defense,  it  is 
said,  in  the  trial  of  a  certain  action  on  a  promissory 
note.  His  attempt  to  prove  a  set-off  having  failed, 
he  arose  and  said,  with  an  expression  of  intense  scorn : 
"My  client  commands  me  to  plead  the  statute  of 
limitations." 

This  implied  rebuke  was  not  lost  on  the  defendant. 
He  quickly  withdrew  his  plea,  and  paid,  as  did  those 
abashed  brothers,  the  contested  note.40  It  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  here  again  the  Western  law- 
yer measured  up  to  the  lofty  principles  of  his  re- 
fined Eastern  brother,  and  might,  if  confronted  by  a 
similar  demand,  have  gone  even  a  step  beyond  him.41 

Where  injustice  was  to  be  headed  off,  Lincoln 
never  stopped  halfway.  His  honesty  became  mili- 
tant. "He  hated  wrong  and  oppression  every- 
where," as  Judge  Davis  declared;  "and  many  a  man 
whose  fraudulent  conduct  was  undergoing  review  in 


124  HONEST    ABE 

a  court  of  justice  has  writhed  under  his  terrific  in- 
dignation and  rebukes."  42  These  onslaughts  appear 
to  have  been  especially  severe  when  the  strong  had 
robbed  the  weak  or  taken  advantage  of  the  unfor- 
tunate. One  typical  instance  was  that  of  a  pension 
agent  named  Wright,  against  whom  Lincoln  brought 
suit  to  recover  money  wrongfully  withheld  from  the 
widow  of  a  Revolutionary  soldier.  The  claim  as  col- 
lected amounted  to  about  four  hundred  dollars,  of 
which  the  go-between  had  retained  one  half.  This 
was,  of  course,  an  exorbitant  fee;  but  the  friendless 
pensioner,  bent  and  crippled  with  age,  seemed  to  be 
at  the  fellow's  mercy.  He  certainly  expected  no  re- 
sistance from  the  old  lady.  Finding  her  way,  how- 
ever, one  day  into  the  office  of  Lincoln  and  Herndon, 
she  told  the  whole  sordid  story.  It  aroused  the 
instant  sympathy  of  the  senior  partner.  He  called, 
without  loss  of  time,  on  the  agent  to  demand  a  fair 
settlement;  and  when  this  was  refused,  he  as 
promptly  began  an  action.  What  ensued  is  best  told 
in  his  associate's  own  words. 

"The  day  before  the  trial,"  writes  Mr.  Herndon, 
"I  hunted  up  for  Lincoln,  at  his  request,  a  history 
of  the  Revolutionary  War,  of  which  he  read  a  good 
portion.  He  told  me  to  remain  during  the  trial  until 
I  had  heard  his  address  to  the  jury.  '  For,'  said  he, 
'I  am  going  to  skin  Wright,  and  get  that  money 
back.'  The  only  witness  we  introduced  was  the  old 
lady,  who  through  her  tears  told  her  story.  In  his 
speech  to  the  jury,  Lincoln  recounted  the  causes 
leading  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  strug- 
gle, and  then  drew  a  vivid  picture  of  the  hardships  of 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      125 

Valley  Forge,  describing  with  minuteness  the  men, 
barefooted  and  with  bleeding  feet,  creeping  over  the 
ice.43  As  he  reached  that  point  in  his  speech  wherein 
he  narrated  the  hardened  action  of  the  defendant 
in  fleecing  the  old  woman  of  her  pension,  his  eyes 
flashed,  and  throwing  aside  his  handkerchief,  which 
he  held  in  his  right  hand,  he  fairly  launched  into 
him.  His  speech  for  the  next  five  or  ten  minutes 
justified  the  declaration  of  Davis,  that  he  was  'hurt- 
ful in  denunciation  and  merciless  in  castigation.' 

"There  was  no  rule  of  court  to  restrain  him  in  his 
argument,  and  I  never,  either  on  the  stump  or  on 
other  occasions  in  court,  saw  him  so  wrought.  Be- 
fore he  closed,  he  drew  an  ideal  picture  of  the  plain- 
tiff's husband,  the  deceased  soldier,  parting  with  his 
wife  at  the  threshold  of  their  home,  and  kissing  their 
little  babe  in  the  cradle,  as  he  started  for  the  war. 
'Time  rolls  by/  he  said,  in  conclusion.  'The  heroes 
of  '76  have  passed  away,  and  are  encamped  on  the 
other  shore.  The  soldier  has  gone  to  rest,  and  now, 
crippled,  blinded,  and  broken,  his  widow  comes  to 
you  and  to  me,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  to  right  her 
wrongs.  She  was  not  always  thus.  She  was  once 
a  beautiful  young  woman.  Her  step  was  as  elastic, 
her  face  as  fair,  and  her  voice  as  sweet  as  any  that 
rang  in  the  mountains  of  old  Virginia.  But  now  she 
is  poor  and  defenseless.  Out  here  on  the  prairies  of 
Illinois,  many  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  the 
scenes  of  her  childhood,  she  appeals  to  us,  who  enjoy 
the  privileges  achieved  for  us  by  the  patriots  of  the 
Revolution,  for  our  sympathetic  aid  and  manly 
protection.  All  I  ask  is,  shall  we  befriend  her? ' 


126  HONEST    ABE 

"The  speech  made  the  desired  impression  on  the 
jury.  Half  of  them  were  in  tears,  while  the  defend- 
ant sat  in  the  court-room,  drawn  up  and  writhing 
under  the  fire  of  Lincoln's  fierce  invective.  The  jury 
returned  a  verdict  in  our  favor  for  every  cent  we 
demanded.  Lincoln  was  so  much  interested  in  the 
old  lady  that  he  became  her  surety  for  costs,  paid 
her  way  home,  and  her  hotel  bill  while  she  was  in 
Springfield.  When  the  judgment  was  paid  we  re- 
mitted the  proceeds  to  her  and  made  no  charge  for 
our  services."  44 

Some  of  the  finest  traditions  known  to  the  legal 
profession  had  been  observed  in  this  case.  St.  Ives 
himself,  "Advocate  of  the  Poor"  and  patron  of  law- 
yers, might  have  held  such  a  brief.  We  can  fancy 
him,  standing  at  the  bar  of  the  Springfield  court, 
scroll  in  hand  as  he  is  sometimes  pictured,  speaking 
for  the  poor  widow;  but  whether  that  scroll  would 
have  contained  notes  like  those  that  Lincoln  jotted 
down  for  the  argument  may  perhaps  be  questioned. 
They  read:  "No  contract.  —  Not  professional  ser- 
vices. —  Unreasonable  charge.  —  Money  retained  by 
Deft  not  given  by  Pl'ff.  —  Revolutionary  War.  — 
Describe  Valley  Forge  privations.  —  Ice.  —  Soldiers' 
bleeding  feet.  —  Pl'ff 's  husband.  —  Soldier  leaving 
home  for  army.  —  Skin  Deft.  —  Close." 

And  yet  how  could  any  true  champion  —  inspired 
saint  or  just  plain  lawyer  —  have  kept  his  hands  off 
that  defendant !  Nothing  but  a  flaying  appears  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  occasion.  Even  your  gentle, 
courteous,  sympathetic  soul  like  Lincoln's,  alert  to 
the  conflict  between  right  and  wrong,  is  stirred  by 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      127 

such  meanness  to  its  very  depths.  Love  of  justice 
then  flames  into  hatred  of  injustice.  The  patient 
pleader  becomes  the  masterful  prosecutor.  In  fact, 
the  better  the  man,  the  fiercer  grows  his  rage. 
Wielding  a  scourge  of  whipcord  and  striking  home, 
he  drives  the  object  of  his  contempt  in  hot  anger 
before  him.  Nor  is  he  at  that  moment  a  respecter 
of  persons.  Certainly  Lincoln  was  not.  The  wrath 
with  which  he  bore  down  from  time  to  time,  as  we 
have  seen,  on  unprincipled  litigants,  witnesses,  and 
attorneys  did  not  stop  there.  Misconduct  on  the 
bench  incensed  him  still  more.  If  the  judge  before 
whom  he  was  trying  a  cause  persistently  attempted 
to  be  unfair,  serious  friction  ensued ;  and  the  defer- 
ence with  which  even  adverse  rulings  were  custom- 
arily received,  gave  way  at  last  to  an  outburst  of 
indignation.  "In  such  cases,"  writes  Mr.  Herndon 
of  his  associate,  "he  was  the  most  fearless  man  I  ever 
knew." 

Describing  a  remarkable  encounter  which  oc- 
curred during  the  Harrison  murder  trial,  between 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  Judge  E.  J.  Rice,  our  junior  partner 
relates  how  the  presiding  magistrate  repeatedly 
ruled  against  counsel  for  the  defense  in  such  a  way 
as  to  convince  them  that  he  was  prejudiced. 

"Finally,"  the  narrator  goes  on  to  say,  "a  very 
material  question  —  in  fact,  one  around  which  the 
entire  case  seemed  to  revolve  —  came  up,  and  again 
the  court  ruled  adversely.  The  prosecution  was  jubi- 
lant, and  Lincoln,  seeing  defeat  certain  unless  he 
recovered  his  ground,  grew  very  despondent.  The 
notion  crept  into  his  head  that  the  court's  rulings, 


128  HONEST    ABE 

which  were  absurd  and  almost  spiteful,  were  aimed 
at  him,  and  this  angered  him  beyond  reason.  He 
told  me  of  his  feelings  at  dinner,  and  said,  'I  have 
determined  to  crowd  the  court  to  the  wall  and  regain 
my  position  before  night.'  From  that  time  forward 
it  was  interesting  to  watch  him.  At  the  reassembling 
of  court  he  arose  to  read  a  few  authorities  in  support 
of  his  position.  In  his  comments  he  kept  within  the 
bounds  of  propriety  just  far  enough  to  avoid  a  repri- 
mand for  contempt  of  court.  He  characterized  the 
continued  rulings  against  him  as  not  only  unjust  but 
foolish;  and,  figuratively  speaking,  he  peeled  the 
court  from  head  to  foot.  I  shall  never  forget  the 
scene.  Lincoln  had  the  crowd,  a  portion  of  the  bar, 
and  the  jury  with  him.  He  knew  that  fact,  and  it, 
together  with  the  belief  that  in  justice  had  been  done 
him,  nerved  him  to  a  feeling  of  desperation.  He  was 
wrought  up  to  the  point  of  madness.  When  a  man 
of  large  heart  and  head  is  wrought  up  and  mad,  as 
the  old  adage  runs,  'he's  mad  all  over.'  Lincoln  had 
studied  up  the  points  involved,  but  knowing  full 
well  the  calibre  of  the  judge,  relied  mostly  on  the 
moral  effect  of  his  personal  bearing  and  influence. 
He  was  alternately  furious  and  eloquent,  pursuing 
the  court  with  broad  facts  and  pointed  inquiries,  in 
marked  and  rapid  succession.  .  .  .  The  prosecution 
endeavored  to  break  him  down  or  even  'head  him 
off,'  but  all  to  no  purpose.  His  masterly  arraignment 
of  law  and  facts  had  so  effectually  badgered  the 
judge  that,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  he  pretended  to 
see  the  error  in  his  former  position,  and  finally  re- 
versed his  decision  in  Lincoln's  favor.  The  latter 


PROFESSIONAL    ETHICS      129 

saw  his  triumph,  and  surveyed  a  situation  of  which 
he  was  the  master.  His  client  was  acquitted,  and  he 
had  swept  the  field."  45 

This  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  great  advo- 
cate's last  important  victories  at  the  bar.  It  forms, 
in  certain  respects,  a  fitting  climax  to  his  legal  career. 
For  the  admirable  honesty  of  word  and  act  with 
which  he  started  out  would  hardly  have  carried  him  " 
far,  had  they  not  been  reinforced  betimes  by  the 
wisdom  that  comes  to  the  sincere  truth-seeker  alone, 
and  by  the  courage  that  is  born  of  truth's  fairest 
offspring  —  an  abiding  love  of  justice.  Looking 
back  over  the  scenes  of  his  labors,  we  become  aware, 
despite  their  commonplace  settings,  of  something 
akin  to  chivalry.  They  recall,  as  it  were,  those  epic 
days  when  disinterested  zeal  inspired,  or  was  thought 
to  inspire,  chevalier  and  barrister  alike.  No  coun- 
selor of  old,  who  took  on  himself  a  knightly  obliga- 
tion to  plead  the  cause  of  the  defenseless,  could  have 
acquitted  himself,  all  in  all,  more  nobly.  Faithful  to 
his  ideals  through  many  temptations,  yet  free  from 
self-complacency;  chivalrous  to  his  adversaries,  yet 
striking  hard  blows  for  the  cause  in  which  he  was 
enlisted ;  afraid  to  make  a  false  plea,  yet  not  afraid  of 
a  false  judge,  —  homely,  unassuming  Abraham  Lin- 
coln rode  over  the  circuit  in  much  the  same  spirit  as 
quickened  the  knight  errant  on  his  ancient  journey- 
ings.  No  paladin  of  the  law,  at  least  in  his  day,  bore 
himself  more  gallantly.  None  seemed  to  do  more 
toward  conferring  a  practical,  latter-day  meaning 
on  Bayard's  motto,  "Without  fear  and  without 
reproach." 


CHAPTER   IV 

DOLLARS  AND  CENTS 

THE  love  of  money  never  twined  its  sinister 
roots  around  the  heart  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
He  was  wholly  free  of  any  desire  to  amass  riches,  nor 
could  he  understand  why  others  should  be  eager  to 
do  so.  The  mere  piling  up  of  possessions  seemed  to 
him  unworthy  of  an  able  man's  ambition,  and  the 
benevolence  which  manifests  itself  in  grinding  the 
faces  of  many  fellow-beings,  so  as  to  acquire  a  for- 
tune for  a  few  public  benefactions,  hardly  appealed 
to  one  whose  humanity  took  the  form  of  honest, 
kindly  abnegation  toward  all  those  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  Pecuniary  rewards,  therefore,  oc- 
cupied a  minor  place  among  his  incentives  to  ac- 
tion. In  fact,  when  there  was  an  end  to  be  achieved, 
he  became  so  engrossed  over  the  work  which  should 
bring  it  about  that  not  much  attention  was  given  to 
the  pay.  Although  his  faculties  usually  worked  in 
striking  harmony  with  one  another,  the  harmony  of 
thrift,  whereby  a  man  can  perform  a  good  action 
and,  as  the  phrase  goes,  make  a  good  thing  out  of  it 
at  the  same  time,  was  foreign  to  his  nature.  He 
appears  to  have  been  utterly  lacking  in  the  rather 
commonplace  talent  for  transmuting  people's  neces- 
sities into  comfortable  revenues.  His  whimsical  hu- 
mor once  denned  wealth  to  be  "simply  a  superfluity 
of  what  we  don't  need";  and  his  frankness,  at  an- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        131 

other  time,  led  him  to  say:  "I  don't  know  anything 
about  money.  I  never  had  enough  of  my  own  to  fret 
me." 

How  this  condition  came  about,  we  have  already, 
in  a  measure,  seen.  What  Lincoln  learned  of  busi- 
ness, at  the  outset,  from  his  luckless  father,  from  the 
ill-regulated  Offut,  and  the  dissipated  Berry,  did  not 
carry  him  far  on  the  road  to  fortune.  Indeed,  he  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  made  a  fair  start  toward  that 
delectable  goal.  To  all  appearances,  the  stuff  which 
passes,  as  Mowgli  says,  "from  hand  to  hand  and 
never  grows  warmer,"  was  slow  in  coming  his  way; 
and  what  little  did  reach  him  rarely  remained  long 
enough  to  allow  a  test  for  heat  or  cold.  Where 
money  is  concerned,  some  men  are  sponges,  some  are 
sieves. 

One  of  this  man's  first  large  coins  that  he  earned 
for  himself,  by  a  single  piece  of  work,  passed  through 
his  fingers  with  ominous  celerity.  It  happened  in 
this  way.  While  engaged  on  a  voyage,  during  the 
youthful  river  days,  —  he  was  about  eighteen  years 
old  at  the  time,  —  Lincoln  stood  near  the  water's 
edge  as  a  steamboat  came  in  sight.  Relating  what 
followed  to  some  friends  many  years  later,  he  ex- 
plained that  there  were  usually  no  wharves  for  large 
boats  along  the  shores  of  the  Western  rivers,  and 
that  it  was  customary  for  passengers  to  board  the 
vessels,  as  best  they  could,  in  mid-stream. 

"I  was  contemplating  my  new  flatboat,"  the 
speaker  continued,  "and  wondering  whether  I  could 
make  it  stronger  or  improve  it  in  any  particular, 
when  two  men  came  down  to  the  shore  in  carriages 


132  HONEST    ABE 

with  trunks,  and  looking  at  the  different  boats  sin- 
gled out  mine,  and  asked,  'Who  owns  this?'    I  an- 
swered, somewhat  modestly,  'I   do.'    'Will  you,' 
said  one  of  them,  '  take  us  and  our  trunks  out  to  the 
steamer?'    'Certainly,'  said  I.    I  was  very  glad  to 
have  the  chance  of  earning  something.    I  supposed 
that  each  of  them  would  give  me  two  or  three  bits. 
The  trunks  were  put  on  my  flatboat,  the  passengers 
seated  themselves  on  the  trunks,  and  I  sculled  them 
out  to  the  steamboat.    They  got  on  board,  and  I 
lifted  up  their  heavy  trunks,  and  put  them  on  deck. 
The  steamer  was  about  to  put  on  steam  again,  when 
I  called  out  that  they  had  forgotten  to  pay  me.  Each 
of  them  took  from  his  pocket  a  silver  half-dollar, 
and  threw  it  on  the  floor  of  my  boat.  I  could  scarcely 
believe  my  eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money.   Gentle- 
men, you  may  think  it  was  a  very  little  thing,  and  in 
these  days  it  seems  to  me  a  trifle ;  but  it  was  a  most 
important  incident  in  my  life.     I  could  scarcely 
credit  that  I,  a  poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in  less 
than  a  day  —  that  by  honest  work  I  had  earned  a 
dollar.    The  world  seemed  wider  and  fairer  before 
me.   I  was  a  more  hopeful  and  confident  being  from 
that  time."  1 

But  the  sequel,  as  Lincoln  told  it  on  another  occa- 
sion, sounds  less  inspiring.  For  while  playing  with 
the  coins  after  the  steamboat  had  departed,  he 
dropped  one  of  the  pieces  overboard.  "  I  can  see  the 
quivering  and  shining  of  that  half-dollar  yet,"  the 
narrator  thoughtfully  added,  "as  in  the  quick  cur- 
rent it  went  down  the  stream,  and  sank  from  my 
sight  forever."  2 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        133 

This  incident  was  typical  of  the  brief  but  inglori- 
ous business  career  which  followed.  In  a  certain 
sense  Lincoln's  commercial  life  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  with  the  fiasco  of  the  lost  fare,  and  to  have 
closed  about  seven  years  thereafter,  even  more  dis- 
astrously, as  the  reader  will  remember,  under  the 
cloud  of  "the  national  debt."  During  that  period  he 
experienced,  from  all  accounts,  few  if  any  of  the  joys 
found  by  the  smug  trader  in  the  give-and-take  of 
barter. 

Nor  did  he,  while  pursuing  his  next  occupation  as 
a  surveyor,  evince  any  livelier  appreciation  of  the 
opportunities  for  speculation  which  presented  them- 
selves on  every  side.  Promising  town-sites  or  fertile 
quarter-sections  interested  him  only  so  far  as  they 
afforded  the  employment  whereby  he  earned  his 
daily  bread.  For  greed  of  land,  like  greed  of  money, 
had  no  place  in  the  man's  make-up.  He  regarded 
with  kindly  toleration,  however,  the  struggles  of  in- 
vestors who  scrambled  after  title-deeds.  Yet  if  their 
activities  took  a  dishonest  turn,  his  contempt  for  the 
offenders  was  keener  than  that  which  Christian  is 
said  to  have  visited  upon  the  pupils  of  Mr.  Gripe- 
man.  In  the  ancient  allegory  those  worthies  were 
dismissed  with  a  reprimand ;  but  their  successors,  in 
this  latter-day  narrative,  did  not,  on  certain  occa- 
sions at  least,  escape  so  easily. 

"Land-sharks,"  or  "land-grabbers,"  as  they  have 
been  variously  called,  should  be  rated  among  Lin- 
coln's pet  aversions.  From  the  time  of  his  admission 
to  the  bar,  he  lost  no  opportunity  of  exposing  their 
rascalities  and  of  protecting  their  victims.  Many  a 


134  HONEST    ABE 

poor  settler,  struggling  to  save  the  homestead  from 
blackmailers,  who  too  often  infested  the  govern- 
ment land-offices,  would  have  fared  badly  if  it  had 
not  been  for  this  man's  sympathetic  help.  What  he 
managed  to  do  for  the  pioneers  when  so  beset,  took 
well-nigh  as  many  forms  as  did  the  various  kinds  of 
dangers  which  threatened  them.  These  services,  in 
fact,  ranged  all  the  way  from  the  giving  of  legal  aid 
to  the  lending  of  a  horse. 

It  is  related  that  one  spring  morning,  as  some  of 
the  lawyers  on  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit  were  rid- 
ing leisurely  toward  Springfield,  from  the  West,  they 
were  overtaken  by  a  traveler  who  was  hurrying  in 
the  same  direction.  His  desperate  efforts  to  quicken 
the  pace  of  the  stumbling,  mud-flecked  animal 
which  he  bestrode,  and  the  appearance  in  the  dis- 
tance of  another  horseman,  evidently  in  pursuit,  told 
their  own  story.  Such  a  scene  was  not  unfamiliar  to 
the  little  cavalcade  of  attorneys.  They  recognized 
in  the  first  rider  a  home-maker,  racing  against  time, 
with  perhaps  his  final  payment,  to  the  land-office; 
and  in  the  second,  a  home-wrecker  pushing  forward, 
no  less  eagerly,  to  take  advantage  of  a  possible  de- 
fault. For  if  by  a  certain  hour  the  settler  should  fail 
to  reach  his  goal,  the  property  on  which  he  had  spent 
much  toil  as  well  as  money  would  be  forfeited,  the 
claim  would  be  reopened,  and  his  pursuer,  or  any  one 
else,  might  become  the  owner.  All  this  passed,  like  a 
flash,  through  the  mind  of  at  least  one  lawyer  in  the 
little  company  that  sat  their  horses,  curiously  observ- 
ing the  race. 

As  the  first  rider  came  up  with  them,  Lincoln 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        135 

called  out:  "John,  is  this  the  day  of  your  final  entry, 
and  have  you  the  money?" 

There  was  a  look  of  despair  in  the  man's  haggard 
face.  Reining  up  his  spent  beast,  and  gazing  anx- 
iously down  the  muddy  road  that  still  lay  before 
him,  he  answered:  "Yes,  I've  got  the  money;  but 
my  horse  can't  make  it." 

"Mine  can,"  said  Lincoln.  "Take  him,  and  save 
your  land.  Take  the  right-hand  road  a  mile  ahead  of 
this,  and  get  on  the  south  road  into  town.  By  this 
you  will  save  a  mile.  Take  care  of  the  horse  as  well 
as  you  can,  but  be  sure  to  get  there  in  time  to  save 
your  land." 

This  exchange  having  been  rapidly  effected,  the 
settler  pushed  on,  and  did  reach  Springfield  in  time 
to  win  the  day.  He  had  not  been  at  the  land-office 
long  when  his  benefactor  appeared  on  the  scene,  for 
the  purpose  of  still  further  aiding  him  as  an  attor- 
ney. The  proffered  services  were  gladly  accepted, 
John's  title  was  perfected,  and  one  more  homestead 
rested  secure  from  the  malevolence  of  the  "sharks." 
How  many  of  these  scurvy  creatures  were  gaffed 
by  Lincoln  is  of  course  not  known.  He  was,  as  one 
friend  expressed  it,  "a  terror"  to  the  whole  breed; 
and  common  report  credited  him  with  being  more 
active  in  thwarting  their  devices  than  any  other 
lawyer  throughout  the  State.  Always  on  the  side  of 
the  settlers,  he  could  not,  it  is  said,  be  hired  to  take 
any  of  the  public-land  cases  against  them.  They  ap- 
pear to  have  been  people  of  little  or  no  means,  yet 
his  ability,  influence,  and  untiring  perseverance  were 
at  their  command,  without  reserve.  Homes  trem- 


136  HONEST    ABE 

bled  in  the  balance;  that  was  enough  for  him.  And 
whether  these  pioneers  paid  small  fees  or  none  at  all, 
their  cause  never  failed  to  enlist  the  stalwart  cham- 
pionship of  Abraham  Lincoln.3 

Nor  was  it  among  these  unfortunates  alone  that 
we  find  the  numerous  instances  of  those  who  enjoyed 
his  protection  free  of  charge.  For  looking  upon  the 
law  as  a  profession,  not  a  trade,  as  a  factor  in  the 
administration  of  justice,  not  a  mere  money-getting 
business,  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  the  point  of 
increasing  any  poor  client's  embarrassments  by  de- 
manding fees.  In  fact,  as  has  been  the  case  with 
many  a  truly  great  lawyer,  his  skill  was  ever  at  the 
service  of  the  indigent  and  oppressed,  without  regard 
to  compensation.  Their  plights,  not  their  depleted 
purses,  concerned  him.  Taking  such  clients  into  his 
affections,  with  all  the  sympathy  of  an  older  brother 
who  had  himself  trodden  the  stony  path  over  which 
he  was  helping  them,  Lincoln  found  a  pleasure  in  the 
relationship  that  money  could  not  buy.  If  the  ques- 
tion of  pay  were  raised  by  some  grateful  but  impov- 
erished litigant,  Portia's  answer  might  readily  have 
served :  — 

"  He  is  well  paid  that  is  well  satisfied; 
And  I,  delivering  you,  am  satisfied, 
And  therein  do  account  myself  well  paid." 

This  was  Lincoln's  attitude  of  mind  when  he  re- 
fused to  make  a  charge  for  saving  Hannah  Arm- 
strong's graceless  son  from  the  gallows.  But  his 
liberality  on  that  occasion  should  perhaps  be  cred- 
ited to  gratitude  rather  than  to  humanity.  Not  so, 
however,  his  generous  treatment  of  the  Revolution- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        137 

ary  soldier's  widow.  What  he  did  for  that  chance 
client,  in  winning  her  suit  without  pay  and  defraying 
all  costs  besides,  must  be  set  down  to  pure  benevo- 
lence. It  reminds  one  of  the  spirit  which  prompted 
Theophilus  Parsons,  with  his  fine  scorn  for  money, 
in  the  presence  of  distress,  to  decline  fees  from  wid- 
ows. How  much  further  than  that  Lincoln  went 
along  unmercenary  lines  has  been  variously  related. 
A  few  of  the  typical  stories  may  be  pertinent  here. 

Some  time  during  1843,  Isaac  Cogdal,  the  Rock 
Creek  quarryman,  was  in  financial  difficulties.  He 
employed  Mr.  Lincoln  to  do  the  necessary  legal  work 
and  settled  therefor  with  a  promissory  note.  Not 
long  after  this,  the  luckless  client,  while  making  a 
blast,  had  an  accident  whereby  he  lost  one  of  his 
arms.  Meeting  Lincoln  some  time  after,  on  the  steps 
of  the  State  House  at  Springfield,  he  stopped  in  re- 
sponse to  the  lawyer's  kindly  greeting.  Cogdal's 
sad  face  told  its  own  tale,  and  a  sympathetic  ques- 
tion as  to  how  he  was  getting  along,  elicited  the  re- 
ply: "Badly  enough,  I  am  both  broken  up  in  busi- 
ness, and  crippled."  Then  he  added,  "I  have  been 
thinking  about  that  note  of  yours."  "Well,  you 
need  n't  think  any  more  about  it,"  rejoined  the  attor- 
ney, laughing,  as  he  took  out  his  wallet  and  handed 
him  the  paper.  Much  moved,  Cogdal  protested,  but 
Lincoln,  with  the  remark,  "If  you  had  the  money,  I 
would  not  take  it,"  hurried  away.4 

Labors  of  a  more  serious  character  were  at  times 
hardly  more  profitable.  For  instance,  during  the 
summer  of  1841  Lincoln,  together  with  his  partner, 
Stephen  T.  Logan,  and  Edward  D.  Baker,  conducted 


138  HONEST    ABE 

the  defense  of  three  brothers  who  were  charged  with 
murder.  Two  of  the  accused  men,  William  Trailer, 
from  Warren  County,  and  Henry  Trailer,  from 
Clary's  Grove,  accompanied  by  their  friend  Archi- 
bald Fisher,  had  come  to  visit  the  third  brother, 
Archibald  Trailor,  in  Springfield.  Shortly  after  their 
arrival,  Fisher  mysteriously  disappeared.  A  hue  and 
cry  ensued.  The  missing  man  was  known  to  have 
had  money;  the  Trailers  were  known  to  be  in  debt. 
While  search-parties  went  in  various  directions  to 
find  Fisher's  dead  body,  the  brothers  were  placed 
under  arrest.  Then  certain  police  officers  so  played 
upon  the  fears  of  Henry,  who  was  weak-minded,  that 
he  made  what  purported  to  be  a  confession.  His 
story  set  forth  in  great  detail  how  William  and  Archi- 
bald, after  killing  their  friend,  had  thrown  the  corpse 
into  Spring  Creek;  but  no  sign  of  the  remains  could 
be  discovered  by  the  eager  investigators  who  dragged 
that  stream.  At  the  examining  trial,  before  two  mag- 
istrates, many  witnesses  were  introduced  by  the 
prosecution.  Henry  Trailor  repeated  his  narrative 
under  oath,  and  the  prospect  looked  black,  indeed, 
for  his  two  brothers,  when  their  counsel  showed  by 
reputable  evidence  that  Fisher,  afflicted  with  occa- 
sional aberration  of  mind,  had  in  several  previous 
instances  wandered  away.  This  led  to  more  intelli- 
gent inquiry,  and  Fisher  was  traced  to  Warren, 
whither  he  had  indeed  walked  in  a  demented  con- 
dition. The  Trailors  were,  of  course,  promptly  dis- 
charged. As  William  and  "Arch"  rushed  into  each 
other's  arms,  weeping  like  children,  the  court  is  said 
to  have  become  "like  Bedlam." 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        139 

An  outline  of  this  remarkable  case  was  sketched 
by  Lincoln,  in  a  letter  still  extant,  to  his  absent 
friend,  Joshua  F.  Speed.  It  is  from  another  source, 
however,  that  we  learn  our  most  significant  fact. 
An  admiring  account  of  the  affair  has  been  pre- 
served by  a  student  in  the  Springfield  law-office. 
He  relates  that  Lincoln  —  whatever  the  other  attor- 
neys may  have  done  —  not  only  gave  his  services 
to  these  harassed  men  without  charge,  but  that  he 
even  defrayed  some  of  their  expenses  from  his  own 
pocket.5 

How  much  of  this  generosity  was  due  to  the  old 
Clary's  Grove  associations  may  not  now  be  deter- 
mined. Certain  it  is  that  Lincoln  found  difficulty 
in  bringing  himself  to  the  point  of  making  out  bills 
against  those  early  neighbors.  "He  was  always  kind 
to  his  friends,"  said  one  of  them,  William  McNeely, 
"and  attended  to  some  law  business  for  me  —  fre- 
quently gave  me  advice,  —  and  I  do  not  recollect  of 
his  ever  charging  me  anything  for  it."  6 

Another  of  these  favored  associates,  Harvey  L. 
Ross,  appears  to  have  had  a  similar  experience. 
Carrying  the  mails  in  pioneer  days  for  his  father, 
Ossian  M.  Ross,  who  was  postmaster  at  Havana, 
Illinois,  he  had  become  well  acquainted  with  the 
tall,  good-natured  young  incumbent  of  the  post- 
office  at  New  Salem.  Lincoln  took  a  fancy  to  this 
youthful  messenger,  and  they  became  good  friends. 
So  later,  upon  Ossian's  death,  when  Harvey  needed 
legal  help,  he  called  upon  his  former  associate,  in 
practice  by  that  time  at  Springfield.  Young  Ross 
had  inherited  from  his  father's  estate  a  quarter-sec- 


140  HONEST    ABE 

tion  of  land  with  a  defective  title.  This  could  be 
made  good  only  by  the  evidence  of  a  man  named 
Hagerty.  Bringing  him  to  Lincoln's  office,  one  sum- 
mer day,  Harvey  showed  the  papers  and  told  his 
story.  After  listening  attentively,  the  attorney  said : 
"  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  tell  you  that  you  are  a  little 
too  late,  for  the  court  has  adjourned,  and  will  not 
meet  again  for  six  months,  and  Judge  Thomas  has 
gone  home.  He  lives  on  a  farm  a  mile  east  of  town, 
but  we  will  go  and  see  him,  and  see  if  he  can  do 
anything  for  you." 

Mindful  of  the  warm  August  weather,  Ross  wished 
to  hire  a  carriage;  but  Lincoln  answered,  "No,  I  can 
walk  if  you  can."  So  after  shedding  his  coat,  off  he 
strode  with  a  bandana  handkerchief,  which  did 
frequent  duty,  in  one  hand,  the  papers  in  the  other. 
Client  and  witness  followed  as  best  they  could. 
Arriving  at  the  judge's  residence,  the  party  was  di- 
rected to  a  distant  field,  in  which  they  found  him 
busily  engaged,  with  his  men,  on  a  new  corncrib. 
He  stopped  to  hear  Lincoln's  tactful  statement  of 
their  errand,  sent  for  writing  materials,  examined 
Hagerty,  and  signed  the  desired  papers.  The  magis- 
trate, like  the  attorney,  —  to  say  nothing  of  the 
other  participants  in  this  little  scene,  —  was  coat- 
less,  which  led  Lincoln  to  remark  that  they  had  been 
holding  "a  kind  of  a  shirt-sleeve  court."  "Yes," 
replied  His  Honor,  "a  shirt-sleeve  court  in  a  corn- 
field." The  hint  was  not  lost  on  our  amiable  coun- 
selor. Upon  his  motion,  all  hands,  including  bench 
and  bar,  united  their  strength  to  raise  the  heaviest 
logs  —  a  service  which  Judge  Thomas  gratefully 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        141 

accepted  in  lieu  of  fees.  Court  then  stood  adjourned, 
and  the  visitors  departed. 

When  they  had  returned  to  the  office  in  Spring- 
field, Ross,  taking  out  his  pocket-book,  said:  "Now, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  how  much  shall  I  pay  you  for  this  long 
walk  through  the  hot  sun  and  dust?  " 

As  the  lawyer  applied  the  big  handkerchief  to  his 
perspiring  face,  he  answered:  "I  guess  I  will  not 
charge  anything  for  that.  I  will  let  it  go  on  the  old 
score." 

Recalling  the  many  kindnesses  already  credited 
from  this  source  to  "the  old  score,"  Harvey  —  so 
runs  the  tale  —  could  not  control  himself,  and  the 
tears  came  into  his  eyes.7 

The  lawyers  among  Lincoln's  friends  were,  at 
times,  not  more  successful  in  obtaining  bills  from 
him  for  services  rendered.  "You  must  not  think  of 
offering  me  pay  for  this,"  he  wrote  after  submitting  a 
legal  opinion  which  one  of  them  had  requested  him 
to  prepare.8  Somewhat  similar  in  tone  was  his  re- 
sponse to  General  Usher  F.  Linder,  when  that  col- 
league at  the  bar,  and  occasional  political  opponent, 
appealed  for  assistance  during  a  period  of  dire  dis- 
tress. The  general's  son  Dan  had,  in  the  heat  of  a 
quarrel,  shot  a  young  man  named  Benjamin  Boyle. 
When  he  was  placed  under  arrest,  the  assailant 
seemed,  for  the  moment,  without  even  the  custom- 
ary legal  supports,  as  his  father,  seriously  ill  with 
inflammatory  rheumatism,  could  hardly  move  hand 
or  foot.  The  affair  had  happened  "in  a  quarter  of 
the  country  where,"  as  General  Ewing  relates,  Lin- 
coln "was  a  tower  of  strength ;  where  his  name  raised 


142  HONEST    ABE 

up  friends;  where  his  arguments  at  law  had  more 
power  than  the  instructions  of  the  court."  But  these 
triumphs,  be  it  said,  left  the  potent  advocate  un- 
spoilt. For  they  had  not  perceptibly  increased  the 
size  of  his  head,  nor  decreased  the  size  of  his  heart. 
In  a  sympathetic  reply  to  Linder's  agonized  cry  for 
help,  Lincoln  promised  that  no  business,  however 
important,  should  be  allowed  to  keep  him  from  being 
present  and  aiding  in  the  trial.  He  felt  deeply  moved 
over  the  general's  trouble,  yet  what  appears  to  have 
disturbed  him  almost  as  much  was  an  offer  of  fees. 
This  called  forth  a  spirited  but  gentle  protest,  de- 
clining pay  of  any  kind.  No  act  of  his,  he  asserted, 
justified  the  supposition  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
would  take  money  from  a  friend  for  assisting  in 
the  defense  of  an  imperiled  son.9  But  no  trial  took 
place;  for,  as  Boyle  recovered,  Dan  was  finally  re- 
leased. He  went  South,  entered  the  Confederate 
army  during  the  Civil  War,  and  became,  when  taken 
prisoner,  the  recipient  of  still  further  kindnesses 
from  the  hand  of  that  same  attorney  engaged,  at  the 
time,  in  trying  the  great  cause  entitled,  Union  versus 
Disunion.10 

What  Lincoln  did  on  occasions  for  those  who  were 
not  of  his  party,  he  did  as  cheerfully,  it  is  perhaps 
needless  to  say,  for  the  faithful.  His  political  asso- 
ciates always  found  him  ready  and  willing  to  render 
proper  legal  services,  but  they  never  found  him  keen 
about  setting  a  price  upon  the  work  when  completed. 
This  was  especially  so  with  regard  to  matters  of  a 
public  nature.  One  case  in  point,  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  typical,  has  been  related  by  Henry  B. 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        143 

Blackwell.  Recalling  some  of  his  own  early  experi- 
ences, he  said,  a  few  years  ago:  — 

"In  1857,  in  behalf  of  New  York  publishers,  I 
went  from  Chicago  to  Springfield  with  Mr.  Powell, 
the  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  to 
consult  Mr.  Lincoln  as  to  the  details  of  a  proposed 
contract  for  the  introduction  of  district  school  li- 
braries. We  met  him  as  he  was  coming  out  of  the 
court-house  with  his  green  bag  in  his  hand.  Greeting 
us  cordially,  he  took  up  our  affair,  giving  us  the  ad- 
vice we  sought;  but  with  characteristic  unselfish- 
ness, he  declined  to  accept  compensation  for  his  legal 
services  on  a  question  of  public  interest."  u 

More  numerous  still  were  the  instances  of  valuable 
counsel  given  by  Lincoln,  without  price,  to  the  clients 
whom  he  dissuaded  from  bringing  contemplated 
suits.  Some  of  these  cases,  as  we  have  seen,  involved 
unprincipled  demands,  but  others  rested  upon  hon- 
estly mistaken  convictions.  To  this  latter  class, 
apparently,  belonged  the  real-estate  claim  which  a 
lady  once  placed  in  his  hands  for  prosecution.  She 
told  him  her  story,  wrote  out  a  check  by  way  of 
retainer,  and  left  some  papers  for  the  attorney's 
examination.  At  their  next  interview  Mr.  Lincoln 
reported  frankly  that  a  careful  reading  of  the  docu- 
ments had  disclosed  "not  a  peg"  to  hang  the  claim 
upon.  He  felt  obliged,  therefore,  to  advise  against 
bringing  an  action.  The  lady,  evidently  satisfied 
that  she  had  no  case,  thanked  him,  took  her  papers, 
and  arose  to  go. 

"Wait  a  moment,"  said  he.  "Here  is  the  check 
you  gave  me." 


144  HONEST    ABE 

"But,"  she  replied,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  think  you 
have  earned  that." 

"No,  no,"  he  rejoined,  handing  it  back  to  her; 
"that  would  not  be  right." 

A  few  words  more  of  the  same  tenor  followed. 
Then  the  surprised  client  departed,  richer  by  the 
rejected  fee  and  an  expert  opinion  for  which  she  had 
paid  nothing.12 

In  similar  fashion  many  a  matter  that  had  reached 
a  more  advanced  stage  was  settled  by  Lincoln,  as 
the  reader  will  remember,  out  of  court  and  usually 
without  charge.  He  appears  to  have  been  governed, 
on  such  occasions,  by  the  rule  which  led  Sir  Matthew 
Hale  to  refuse  fees  for  his  services  as  an  arbitrator. 
"In  these  cases,"  said  the  great  English  jurist,  "I 
am  made  a  judge,  and  a  judge  ought  to  take  no 
money."  The  American  peacemaker,  however,  ex- 
plained his  moderation,  whether  as  attorney  or  ref- 
eree, on  less  lofty  grounds.  To  a  young  associate, 
who  suggested  that  he  should  render  bills  in  such 
instances,  Lincoln  laughingly  replied  f  "  They  would 
n't  want  to  pay  me.  They  don't  think  I  have  earned 
a  fee  unless  I  take  the  case  into  court  and  make  a 
speech  or  two."  13 

There  are  always  suitable  reasons  enough  as  to 
why  a  man  should  work  without  recompense,  if  he 
looks  for  them  in  anything  like  Lincoln's  mood  of 
lovable  self-forgetfulness.  How  far  this  was  some- 
times carried  by  him  may  be  inferred  from  his  treat- 
ment of  certain  wealthy  clients  at  the  close  of  his 
legal  career.  He  had  been  retained  for  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Atlantic  Railroad  Company,  in  a  suit 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        145 

brought  against  them  by  some  creditors  of  that  cor- 
poration. Their  case  was  in  charge  of  former  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Gustave  Koerner,  at  whose  request 
the  great  lawyer's  services  had  been  enlisted.  Many 
important  consultations  between  the  associated 
counsel  had  taken  place,  and  their  carefully  prepared 
answer  for  the  defense  had  been  put  in,  when  Mr. 
Lincoln  received  his  nomination  to  the  Presidency. 
He  asked  to  be  relieved,  at  once,  from  further  at- 
tendance on  the  case,  a  request  which  was  of  course 
complied  with.  His  clients,  moreover,  appreciative 
of  the  work  that  had  already  been  done  by  him,  ar- 
ranged for  the  payment  of  a  handsome  fee.  To  their 
surprise  it  was  declined.  "He  utterly  refused,"  re- 
lates Koerner,  "to  take  anything,  although  they 
almost  pressed  the  money  on  him."  14  And  so,  to 
the  very  end  of  the.  chapter,  this  remarkable  man 
evinced  more  agility,  at  times,  in  dodging  payments 
than  most  men  expend  in  reaching  for  them. 

But  there  is  one  instance,  at  least,  of  Lincoln  find- 
ing himself  paid  against  his  will.  The  circumstances 
have  not  been  made  entirely  clear,  yet  one  cannot 
scan  the  meager  details  of  the  affair  without  an  un- 
comfortable feeling  that  something  about  it  was  dis- 
creditable —  whether  to  Lincoln  or  to  others  re- 
mains equally  vague.  The  episode  presents  peculiar 
interest,  however,  as  an  illustration  of  the  extreme 
to  which  he  went  in  dealing  with  a  fee  that  had  been 
forced  upon  him.  His  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  relat- 
ing what  happened  to  a  magazine  writer  shortly  after 
the  war,  said :  — 

"One  morning  a  gentleman  came  here  and  asked 


146  HONEST    ABE 

him  to  use  his  legal  influence  in  a  certain  quarter, 
where  Lincoln  again  and  again  assured  him  he  had 
no  power.  I  heard  him  refuse  the  five  hundred  dol- 
lars offered,  over  and  over  again.  I  went  out  and  left 
them  together.  I  suppose  Lincoln  got  tired  of  refus- 
ing, for  he  finally  took  the  money;  but  he  never 
offered  any  of  it  to  me;  and  it  was  noticeable  that, 
whenever  he  took  money  in  that  way,  he  never 
seemed  to  consider  it  his  own  or  mine.  In  this  case, 
he  gave  the  money  to  the  Germans  in  the  town,  who 
wanted  to  buy  themselves  a  press.  A  few  days  after, 
he  said  to  me  in  the  coolest  way,  'Herndon,  I  gave 
the  Germans  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  of  yours 
the  other  day.'  'I  am  glad  you  did,  Mr.  Lincoln,'  I 
answered.  Of  course  I  could  not  say  I  was  glad  he 
took  it."  15 

Some  years  after  this  recital,  when  Mr.  Herndon 
wrote  the  life  of  his  illustrious  associate,  he  made  no 
reference  to  the  incident.  As  that  biography,  what- 
ever else  can  be  said  concerning  its  merits,  mani- 
festly aimed  to  set  forth  the  real  Lincoln,  without 
undue  eulogy  on  the  one  hand  or  the  suppression  of 
unfavorable  facts  on  the  other,  this  omission  is  sig- 
nificant. It  indicates  that  the  retainer  at  which  he 
balked  may  not,  after  all,  have  required  any  consid- 
erable departure  from  his  customary  high  standards. 
Perhaps,  indeed,  as  he  had  anticipated,  nothing  was 
done  to  earn  the  fee.  That  alone  would  suffice  to 
explain  why  Lincoln  did  not  consider  the  money  his, 
and  why  he  cast  it  into  the  first  conscience  fund 
which  offered  itself. 

Next  to  retaining  payments  for  which  no  equiva- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        147 

lents  in  services  have  been  rendered  ranks  the  dis- 
honesty of  charging  too  much  for  work  that  has 
actually  been  done.  So  thought  Lincoln.  He  wished 
to  avoid  the  one  fault  as  much  as  the  other.  And  his 
anxiety  to  make  fair  prices  led  him,  at  times,  into 
the  opposite  error,  that  of  asking  fees  which  fell  ab- 
surdly short  of  what  they  should  have  been.  Money, 
it  is  true,  was  far  from  plentiful  in  Illinois  during 
those  days  of  small  things.  Such  limited  sums  as 
people  possessed  had  to  supply  many  wants;  and 
legal  services,  like  other  kinds  of  labor,  seemed  rela- 
tively cheap.  Yet  when  Lincoln  came  to  the  making 
out  of  bills,  his  charges  were  not  infrequently  so  light 
as  to  fall  sheer  below  even  these  moderate  standards. 
How  far  in  this  direction  he  sometimes  went  may  be 
gathered  from  a  multitude  of  anecdotes  concerning 
him  that  still  pass  current  throughout  the  region 
comprised  within  the  old  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit. 
Every  one  of  these  tales,  however  trivial,  opens  a 
window  into  the  man's  soul ;  and  it  is  only  by  having 
regard  to  many,  if  not  all  of  them,  that  we  can  reach 
the  various  angles  at  which  he  should  be  scrutinized. 

In  depicting  a  great  personage,  the  historian  may 
rest  content  with  broad  generalizations ;  the  biogra- 
pher may  stop  at  a  few  specific  illustrations  of  prom- 
inent features  in  his  subject's  make-up ;  but  the  stu- 
dent of  character,  recognizing  the  value  of  cumula- 
tive instances,  must  go  further  and,  at  the  risk  of 
seeming  prolix,  —  perhaps  unskilled,  —  must  mar- 
shal enough  kindred  happenings  in  line  to  demon- 
strate the  presence  or  absence  of  significant  traits. 

Lincoln's  proneness  to  underrate  his  services, 


148  HONEST    ABE 

when  he  tried  to  express  them  in  terms  of  dollars 
and  cents,  occasionally  took  a  striking  form.  One 
instance  is  related  by  Abraham  Brokaw,  of  Bloom- 
ington,  Illinois.  He  had  brought  an  action  against  a 
neighbor  who  owed  him  considerable  money.  The 
debt  was  collected  by  the  sheriff,  but  that  officer, 
becoming  insolvent,  had  failed  to  make  proper  re- 
turn of  the  proceeds.  Whereupon  Brokaw  retained 
Lincoln's  great  political  rival,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
to  sue  the  sureties  on  the  official  bond.  This  re- 
sulted in  prompt  payment  of  the  claim.  But  the 
"Little  Giant,"  engrossed  in  one  of  his  strenuous 
campaigns  for  Congress, -proved  to  be  no  improve- 
ment over  the  delinquent  sheriff,  so  far  as  that  wait- 
ing creditor  was  concerned.  King  Log  had  been 
exchanged  for  King  Stork.  Douglas,  with  charac- 
teristic heedlessness,  let  the  money  slip  somehow 
through  his  fingers,  and  returned  to  Washington 
without  having  made  a  settlement.  Then  Brokaw's 
overstrained  patience  snapped.  Neither  the  man's 
ardent  Democracy  nor  his  admiration  for  the  party's 
dashing  young  leader  was  proof  against  such  a  suc- 
cession of  disappointments.  He  engaged  Lincoln  to 
obtain  an  immediate  accounting,  and  that  gentle- 
man, nothing  loath,  sent  Douglas,  who  was  still  at 
the  capital,  a  rather  sharp  letter  demanding  prompt 
payment.  This  deeply  incensed  the  recipient.  Writ- 
ing an  indignant  reply  to  Brokaw  direct,  he  pro- 
tested against  the  outrage  of  placing  any  such  weapon 
in  the  hands  of  a  political  opponent.  So  delicate 
a  matter,  urged  the  complaint,  might  at  least  have 
been  entrusted  to  a  Democrat.  The  letter  was  re- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        149 

mailed  to  Lincoln,  who  entered  briskly  enough  into 
the  humor  of  the  situation.  Taking  Douglas  at  his 
word,  he  forwarded  the  claim  to  "Long  John" 
Wentworth,  a  Democratic  member  of  Congress  from 
Chicago.  Then  the  "Little  Giant"  capitulated,  and 
Brokaw  at  last  received  his  money. 

"What  do  you  suppose  Lincoln  charged  me?" 
queried  the  successful  claimant,  telling  the  story. 
"He  charged  me  exactly  three  dollars  and  fifty 
cents  for  collecting  nearly  six  hundred  dollars." 

When  asked  his  reason  for  retaining  so  small  a 
fee,  the  attorney  is  said  to  have  replied:  "I  had  no 
trouble  with  it.  I  sent  it  to  my  friend  in  Washing- 
ton, and  was  only  out  the  postage."  16 

This  naive  explanation  deserves  a  place  side  by 
side  with  that  of  the  hospitable  hostess,  who,  setting 
an  elaborate  luncheon  before  her  guests,  brushed 
away  their  protests  by  assuring  them  of  its  cheap- 
ness. ' '  Why,"  said  she, ' '  the  whole  affair  cost  almost 
nothing.  I  had  everything  in  the  house  but  ten 
cents'  worth  of  cinnamon." 

The  Brokaw  episode,  moreover,  recalls  another 
instance  of  how  liberally  Lincoln  discounted  the 
value  of  his  services  when  a  friendly  colleague  had 
helped  him  out.  It  has  been  related  by  Isaac  Haw- 
ley,  a  citizen  of  Springfield.  He  was  sued  in  an 
action  of  ejectment  from  a  piece  of  land  on  the  so- 
called  "military  tract"  of  Brown  County.  The  suit 
had  been  brought  in  the  United  States  Court,  so 
Hawley  employed  Mr.  Lincoln  to  look  after  the  case, 
whenever  it  should  come  up  for  trial  at  Chicago. 
After  giving  the  matter  considerable  attention 


150  HONEST    ABE 

through  several  terms  of  court,  the  attorney  ar- 
ranged with  a  local  lawyer  to  watch  the  case  in  his 
absence.  The  man  on  guard  did  this  work  so  well 
that  when  the  case  was  called  he  had  it  dismissed. 
Delighted  at  the  outcome,  Mr.  Hawley  asked  for  a 
bill,  expecting,  as  he  afterward  explained,  to  pay  not 
less  than  fifty  dollars.  But  great  was  his  astonish- 
ment when  Lincoln  said:  "Well,  Isaac,  I  think  I  will 
charge  you  about  ten  dollars.  I  think  that  would  be 
about  right."  17 

Another  Lincoln  client,  George  W.  Nance  by  name, 
who  settled  at  even  a  larger  ratio  of  difference  be- 
tween what  he  thought  was  due  and  what  he  actu- 
ally paid,  writes:  "I  engaged  his  services  in  a  law- 
suit, and  on  asking  his  charge,  to  my  surprise  he  only 
asked  me  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  I  had  no  idea 
of  paying  less  then  ten  dollars."  18 

Still  another  friend  and  client,  John  W.  Bunn,  of 
Springfield,  bears  testimony  to  the  same  general 
effect.  He  tells  how  George  Smith  &  Company,  a 
firm  of  Chicago  bankers,  requested  him  to  retain  an 
attorney  who  should  look  after  their  defense  in  a 
local  attachment  suit  which  involved  several  thou- 
sand dollars.  Mr.  Bunn  entrusted  the  case  to  Lin- 
coln. That  skillful  advocate  won  a  verdict  at  the 
trial,  and  charged  twenty-five  dollars  for  his  victory. 
When  the  bill  reached  them,  the  Chicago  men  wrote 
to  their  correspondent:  "We  asked  you  to  get  the 
best  lawyer  in  Springfield,  and  it  certainly  looks  as 
if  you  had  secured  one  of  the  cheapest."  19 

No  less  an  authority  than  Daniel  Webster  was 
similarly  impressed  with  Lincoln's  moderation.  The 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS 

"Great  Expounder"  employed  him  to  transact 
some  legal  business  concerning  a  certain  speculation 
in  land,  at  the  place  where  Rock  River  flows  into 
the  Mississippi.  An  embryo  city,  laid  out  there  by  the 
promoters,  had  not  been  a  success,  and  most  of  the 
property,  on  which  but  one  payment  had  been  made, 
reverted  finally  to  the  original  owners.  For  such 
services  as  he  could  render  Mr.  Lincoln  charged  ten 
dollars,  a  fee  so  far  from  adequate,  in  Mr.  Webster's 
estimation,  that  he  frequently  referred  to  its  small- 
ness  and  declared  himself  still  his  attorney's  debtor. 

An  English  barrister,  quite  as  eminent,  perhaps,  as 
our  "Godlike  Daniel,"  once  facetiously  defined  the 
lawyer  to  be  "a  learned  gentleman  who  rescues  your 
estate  from  your  enemies  and  keeps  it  himself." 
Such  a  view  of  the  profession  has,  from  time  to  time, 
been  held  in  sober  earnest  by  not  a  few  citizens 
of  both  countries.  Certainly  the  Illinois  matron, 
whom  her  son  quotes  in  the  following  characteristic 
little  anecdote,  appears  to  have  been  of  this  opinion. 
But  it  is  interesting  to  notice  how,  on  one  occasion, 
at  least,  she  had  to  modify  the  gibe  in  favor  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

"My  father,"  relates  Henry  Rickel, "  had  a  claim 
against  a  man  of  the  name  of  Townsend,  to  the 
amount  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  or  more;  and  he 
learned  one  day  that  he  was  about  to  leave  the 
country,  and  had  a  drove  of  cattle,  and  was  on  the 
way  to  Oregon.  My  father  went  to  Mr.  Lincoln, 
secured  an  attachment,  Mr.  Lincoln  furnishing  the 
bond,  and  there  was  a  vigorous  contest  over  the 
matter.  I  remember  the  evening  after  the  trial  my 


152  HONEST    ABE 

father  came  home,  and  my  mother  asked  him  how 
he  came  out.  His  reply  was: ' I  came  out  ahead,  of 
course,  because  I  had  Abe  for  my  lawyer.' 

"My  mother  seemed  to  have  a  pretty  poor  opin- 
ion of  lawyers  in  general,  and  she  said:  'I  suppose 
the  lawyers  will  take  most  of  it.' 

"And  father  replied:  'Why,  mother,  what  do  you 
suppose  Abe  charged  me?' 

"She  mentioned  a  very  large  sum.  My  father 
said:  'You  are  greatly  mistaken.  He  said  to  me, 
"Mr.  Rickel,  I  will  only  charge  you  twenty-five  dol- 
lars, and  if  you  think  that  is  too  much,  I  will  make 
it  less.'""20 

As  surprisingly  small  a  fee  —  the  same  sum,  in 
fact  —  contented  Lincoln  after  another  verdict  of 
even  more  importance.  This  had  been  reached  in 
what  was  called  the  Dungee  slander  suit.  That  it 
involved  far  heavier  labors  on  his  part,  and  that  it 
may  be  classed  among  those  triumphs  in  which  a 
good  round  charge  is  peculiarly  appropriate,  appears 
to  have  made  no  difference.  He  had  carried  all  be- 
fore him  through  a  hotly  contested  trial ;  but  in  the 
supreme  hour,  when  nothing  remained  save  to  gather 
the  fruits  of  victory,  his  hand  fell  limp  at  his  side. 
It  makes  rather  a  long  story,  yet  to  appreciate  fully 
what  happened  one  must  know  the  salient  details. 

To  begin,  this  action  was  brought  before  Judge 
Davis,  at  Clinton,  during  the  spring  of  1856,  after 
Lincoln  had  attained  prominence  as  a  lawyer.  It 
grew  out  of  a  quarrel  between  two  brothers-in-law, 
Jack  Dungee  and  Joe  Spencer.  The  former,  a  dark- 
complexioned  Portuguese,  had  married  the  latter's 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        153 

sister.  How  their  broil  originated  is  not  now  defi- 
nitely known.  When  it  was  at  its  height,  however, 
Spencer  called  Dungee  a  "nigger,"  and  followed 
this  up,  as  they  said,  by  adding  "a  nigger  married 
to  a  white  woman."  The  words  were  slanderous 
because,  under  Illinois  law,  such  a  union  constituted 
a  crime.  Laying  his  damages  at  several  thousand 
dollars,  the  aggrieved  man  employed  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
bring  suit,  whereupon  the  defendant  enlisted  the 
services  of  Clifton  H.  Moore  and  Lawrence  Weldon. 
When  the  matter  came  up,  these  two  able  lawyers 
demurred  to  the  complaint,  on  technical  grounds; 
and  their  motion,  to  Lincoln's  great  chagrin,  was 
sustained  by  the  court.  It  touched  his  professional 
pride  to  have  a  case  thrown  out,  in  that  manner, 
because  of  faulty  papers,  as  indeed  it  would  any 
practitioner.  Gathering  himself  together,  he  leaned 
across  the  trial  table,  and  shaking  a  long  bony  fin- 
ger toward  his  opponents,  he  exclaimed:  "Now,  by 
Jing,  I'll  beat  you  boys!" 

To  make  good  that  threat  Lincoln  appeared  at  the 
next  term  of  court  with  amended  pleadings.  He 
threw  himself  into  the  trial  with  a  mastery  which 
gave  evidence  of  painstaking  preparation ;  while  the 
logic,  wit,  and  eloquence  that  marked  his  argument 
to  the  jury  compelled  the  admiration  of  even  his  ad- 
versaries. After  a  hard-fought  battle  extending  over 
two  days,  the  case  terminated  in  a  heavy  judgment 
for  the  plaintiff. 

His  counsel  had  said  that  Dungee  sought  vindica- 
tion, not  money;  accordingly  the  defendant's  law- 
yers came  and  said:  "Mr.  Lincoln,  you  have  beaten 


154  HONEST    ABE 

us,  as  you  said  you  would.  We  want  now  to  ground 
the  weapons  of  our  unequal  warfare,  and  as  you  said 
your  client  did  not  want  to  make  money  out  of  the 
suit,  we  thought  you  might  get  him  to  remit  some  of 
the  judgment.  We  know  Spencer  has  acted  the  fool, 
but  this  judgment  will  break  him  up." 

"Well,"  replied  Lincoln,  "  I  will  cheerfully  advise 
my  client  to  remit  on  the  most  favorable  terms.  The 
defendant  is  a  fool.  But  he  has  one  virtue.  He  is  in- 
dustrious and  has  worked  hard  for  what  he  has,  so 
I  am  not  disposed  to  hold  him  responsible.  If  every 
fool  was  to  be  dealt  with  by  being  held  responsible 
in  money  for  his  folly,  the  poorhouses  of  the  country 
would  have  to  be  enlarged  very  much  beyond  their 
present  capacity." 

Guided  by  this  benevolent  spirit,  Dungee  con- 
sented to  forego  the  whole  judgme'nt  on  condition 
that  Spencer  would  defray  all  costs,  and  pay  Mr. 
Lincoln's  bill.  When  the  proposition  had  been  ea- 
gerly accepted,  a  question  arose  as  to  what  the  bill 
should  be.  Lincoln  referred  this  to  Moore  and  Wei- 
don,  but  they  both  insisted  that  he,  not  they,  ought 
to  fix  the  amount  of  his  fee. 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  came  the  response,  after  a 
few  moments'  thought,  "don't  you  think  I  have 
honestly  earned  twenty-five  dollars?" 

What  the  gentlemen  thought  was  thus  expressed 
by  Judge  Weldon,  in  after  life,  when  he  told  the 
story:  "We  were  astonished,  and  had  he  said  one 
hundred  dollars  it  would  have  been  what  we  ex- 
pected. The  judgment  was  a  large  one  for  those 
days.  He  had  attended  the  case  at  two  terms  of 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        155 

court,  had  been  engaged  for  two  days  in  a  hotly  con- 
tested suit,  and  his  client's  adversary  was  going  to 
pay  the  bill.  The  simplicity  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  char- 
acter in  money  matters  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  for  all  this  he  charged  twenty-five  dollars."  21 

An  equally  striking  undervaluation  was  remarked 
in  another  slander  suit,  —  one  of  wide  repute,  — 
which  took  place  at  about  the  same  period.  This 
case  is  known  as  the  Chiniquy  affair.  It  was  brought 
in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Kankakee  County,  by  Peter 
Spink,  a  prominent  citizen  of  L'Erable,  against 
Father  Charles  Chiniquy,  the  famous  priest  of  St. 
Anne.  That  reverend  gentleman  had,  in  the  course 
of  a  sermon,  charged  the  plaintiff,  one  of  his  pa- 
rishioners, with  having  committed  perjury;  and  the 
object  of  this  attack  had  lost  no  time  in  seeking 
reparation.  His  attorneys  were  Messrs.  Starr,  Nor- 
ton &  McRoberts.  Chiniquy  was  represented  by 
John  W.  Paddock  and  Uri  Osgood.  According  to  the 
defendant's  own  overcharged,  not  to  say  hysterical, 
narrative,  this  prosecution  had  been  set  on  foot  at 
the  instigation  of  his  superior,  Bishop  O'Regan,  with 
whom  he  then  already  waged  the  unequal  warfare 
which  later  attracted  so  much  attention.  The  mer- 
its of  his  polemic  do  not  concern  us  here.  Certain 
members  of  the  church  may,  as  the  priest  states  in 
his  book,  have  conspired  to  ruin  him,  and  that  par- 
ticular diocese  may,  at  the  time,  have  harbored  those 
shameful  abuses  which  he  decries;  but  what  Chin- 
iquy says  about  Spink's  suit  should  be  received 
with  caution,  for  it  departs  materially,  at  important 
points,  from  the  official  court  records. 


156  HONEST    ABE 

When  the  case  came  up  in  Kankakee,  during  the 
autumn  of  1855,  counsel  for  the  plaintiff  secured 
a  change  of  venue  to  Champaign  County.  This 
greatly  troubled  Father  Chiniquy.  The  heavy  ex- 
pense —  far  beyond  his  means  —  of  bringing  wit- 
nesses and  lawyers  to  a  distant  tribunal,  as  well  as 
the  perils  of  a  trial  among  strangers  appalled  him. 
He  was  leaving  the  court-room  cast  down  by  these 
prospects,  when  an  unknown  well-wisher,  hurrying 
up  with  eager  words  of  sympathy,  urged  that  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  be  retained  to  take  part  in  the  defense. 

"But,"  queried  the  priest,  "who  is  that  Abraham 
Lincoln?  I  never  heard  of  that  man  before." 

To  which  the  other  responded :  "Abraham  Lincoln 
is  the  best  lawyer  and  the  most  honest  man  we  have 
in  Illinois." 

Returning  to  where  his  counsel  were  still  in  con- 
sultation, Chiniquy  asked  their  opinion  of  the  sug- 
gestion. They  warmly  approved,  so  he  accompanied 
this  new-found  friend  to  the  telegraph  office.  In  a 
brief  exchange  of  messages  over  the  Springfield  wire, 
Lincoln  promised  his  aid.  Then  the  stranger,  still 
preserving  his  incognito,  paid  the  operator,  gave  the 
priest  a  few  further  words  of  encouragement,  and 
hastened  away.  He  had  not  been  gone  long  before 
Spink  entered  the  office,  for  the  purpose  of  retaining 
that  same  attorney,  but  it  was  too  late. 

At  the  May  term  of  the  following  year,  when  the 
trial  opened  in  Urbana,  Mr.  Lincoln,  according  to 
agreement,  appeared  for  the  defense.  He  aroused 
the  admiration  of  his  client  by  the  skill  with  which 
he  both  met  the  evidence  of  the  prosecution  and 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        157 

marshaled  the  witnesses  on  their  own  side.  As  most 
of  the  persons  concerned  were  French  Canadians, 
the  testimony  had  to  be  taken  chiefly  through  an 
interpreter.  This  drew  the  proceedings  out  to  tedi- 
ous lengths,  and  increased  the  labors  of  counsel  not 
a  little.  The  trial  was,  however,  slowly  approaching 
its  close  when  one  of  the  jurymen  appeared  to  be  in 
great  distress. 

"What  is  that  juror  crying  about?"  asked  Judge 
Davis,  who  presided. 

"  My  child  is  dying,"  was  the  sobbing  answer. 

A  neighbor,  coming  into  court  had,  unperceived 
by  any  one,  whispered  these  tidings  to  the  unfortu- 
nate father.  His  grief  so  moved  the  judge  that,  after 
a  few  questions  addressed  to  the  newcomer,  he 
said  to  the  juryman:  'You're  discharged,  —  go  at 
once." 

Then,  turning  to  the  counsel  in  the  case,  His 
Honor  inquired:  "Gentlemen,  will  you  proceed  with 
the  eleven  jurymen?" 

After  both  sides  had  consulted,  Lincoln  responded, 
"We  will";  but  Norton  replied,  "We  decline."  So 
the  jury  had  to  be  discharged,  and  the  case  was  con- 
tinued to  the  October  term. 

Another  trial  appears  to  have  been  well  under 
way  in  the  following  autumn  when  Lincoln  exerted 
his  powers  as  peacemaker  and  brought  about  a  com- 
promise. He  probably  framed  the  agreement  under 
which  the  suit  was  dismissed,  for  the  final  order  still 
stands  on  the  court  records  in  his  handwriting.  By 
its  terms  Chiniquy's  charges  against  Spink  were 
withdrawn,  and  each  party  consented  to  pay  his  own 


158  HONEST    ABE 

costs.  The  reverend  Father's  expenses  must  have 
borne  heavily  upon  him.  If  his  own  statement  is  to 
be  credited,  Messrs.  Paddock  and  Osgood  asked  him 
for  a  thousand  dollars  each.  Commenting  on  the 
size  of  the  fee,  he  adds,  "  I  had  not  thought  that  too 
much." 

So,  when  it  came  to  settling  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  the 
third  counsel,  whose  services  in  Chiniquy's  estima- 
tion were  more  than  again  as  valuable,  the  poor 
priest  asked  for  a  bill  with  some  trepidation.  To  his 
bewilderment,  as  he  relates,  the  lawyer  replied: 
"You  owe  me  nothing;  for  I  suppose  you  are  quite 
ruined.  The  expenses  of  such  a  suit,  I  know,  must 
be  enormous.  Your  enemies  want  to  ruin  you.  Will 
I  help  them  to  finish  your  ruin,  when  I  hope  I  have 
the  right  to  be  put  among  the  most  sincere  and  de- 
voted of  your  friends?" 

But  Father  Chiniquy  would  not  let  the  matter 
rest  there.  He  urged  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  at 
least  charge  his  hotel  bills  and  traveling  expenses. 
Whereupon  the  attorney  wrote  on  a  scrap  of  paper: 

URBAN  A,  May  23,  1856. 
Due  A.  Lincoln  fifty  dollars,  for  value  received. 

"Can  you  sign  that?"  he  asked.  And  the  over- 
wrought client,  breaking  into  sobs,  affixed  his  signa- 
ture.22 

So  large  a  disparity  in  size  between  Lincoln's  fees 
and  those  of  other  lawyers  engaged  on  the  same  case, 
as  occurred  in  the  Chiniquy  matter,  was  probably 
not  common.  There  were  differences  enough,  how- 
ever, to  provoke  comment;  and  one  of  them,  at  least, 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        159 

led  to  an  amusing  situation.  On  that  occasion  he 
gained  a  verdict  for  an  aged  German  who  was  in 
danger  of  losing  his  farm.  The  suit  had  been  a  try- 
ing one,  but  after  years  of  litigation  from  court  to 
court,  it  resulted  in  their  favor.  Then  Lincoln 
charged  two  hundred  dollars,  which  the  old  man,  se- 
cure of  his  property,  willingly  paid.  Yet  the  attor- 
ney's conscience  was  not  quite  at  ease  in  the  matter. 
His  reflections  were  disturbed  by  a  fear  that  the  bill 
might  have  been  excessive,  and  the  more  he  thought 
about  it  the  stronger  became  his  feeling.  So,  seeking 
out  the  lawyer  on  the  other  side,  who  happened  to 
be  his  brother-in-law,  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  Lincoln 
asked  him  what  he  —  the  losing  advocate  —  had 
charged  his  client. 

"Two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,"  was  the  reply. 

It  touched  the  questioner's  ever-ready  sense  of 
humor.  He  laughed,  and  decided  to  keep  his  fee 
without  further  parley. 

But  there  are  instances  in  which  fees,  or  rather 
such  portions  of  them  as  appeared  exorbitant,  were 
not  kept.  One  of  these  episodes  has,  within  recent 
years,  been  related  by  Mr.  George  P.  Floyd.  Having 
rented  the  Quincy  House  at  Quincy,  Illinois,  from 
the  owner,  Mrs.  Enos,  who  lived  in  Springfield, 
he  employed  Mr.  Lincoln  to  draw  up  a  lease  and 
have  it  executed.  When  the  document  reached 
Mr.  Floyd,  no  bill  for  services  accompanied  it.  A 
proper  charge  would,  in  his  estimation,  have  been 
twenty-five  dollars.  So  he  sent  the  attorney  that 
amount.  Within  a  few  days,  to  his  astonishment, 
came  this  reply :  — 


160  HONEST    ABE 

SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  February  21,  1856. 

MR.  GEORGE  P.  FLOYD, 

Quincy,  III. 

DEAR  SIR:  —  I  have  just  received  yours  of  i6th, 
with  check  on  Flagg  &  Savage  for  twenty-five  dol- 
lars. You  must  think  I  am  a  high-priced  man.  You 
are  too  liberal  with  your  money.  Fifteen  dollars  is 
enough  for  the  job.  I  send  you  a  receipt  for  fifteen 
dollars,  and  return  to  you  a  ten-dollar  bill. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN.23 

On  another  occasion  the  writer  of  this  singular 
missive  went  further.  He  not  only  returned  part  of 
his  own  fee,  but  he  also  insisted  that  his  associate 
should  do  likewise.  The  associate  himself  —  it  was 
Ward  Hill  Lamon,  one  of  Lincoln's  local  partners  on 
circuit  —  tells  the  story.  He  had  been  retained  in  a 
case  of  some  importance  by  a  client  named  Scott. 
The  man  was  acting  as  conservator  for  a  demented 
sister,  who  possessed  property  that  amounted  to  ten 
thousand  dollars,  mostly  in  cash.  This  ready  money 
—  a  neat  sum  for  those  days  —  had  excited  the  cu- 
pidity of  a  certain  adventurer  who  sought  to  marry 
the  unfortunate  girl,  and  as  an  essential  preliminary 
to  that  step  a  motion  had  been  made  for  the  removal 
of  her  conservator.  It  was  to  oppose  this  action  that 
Scott  retained  Lamon,  insisting,  however,  at  the 
time,  upon  having  the  amount  of  his  fee  determined 
in  advance.  The  attorney  advised  him  to  wait,  as 
the  matter  might  not  give  much  trouble,  in  which 
event  a  comparatively  small  charge  would  be  suffi- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        161 

cient.  But  the  suggestion  met  with  no  favor,  so 
Lamon  named  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  This 
sum,  Scott,  anticipating  a  prolonged  contest,  ea- 
gerly agreed  to  pay.  When  the  case  came  on,  how- 
ever, Lincoln,  who  appeared  for  him,  won  a  com- 
plete victory  inside  of  twenty  minutes.  And  as  they 
stood  within  the  bar,  Scott,  much  elated,  paid  La- 
mon the  stipulated  fee.  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  had  been 
looking  on  while  the  money  was  counted  out,  said 
to  his  colleague,  after  their  client's  departure: 
"What  did  you  charge  that  man?" 

When  the  amount  was  stated,  he  exclaimed: 
"Lamon,  that  is  all  wrong.  The  service  was  not 
worth  that  sum.  Give  him  back  at  least  half  of  it." 

But  the  other  protested  that  the  figure  had  been 
agreed  on  in  advance,  and  that  Scott  expressed  him- 
self as  perfectly  satisfied.  To  which  Lincoln,  sorely 
displeased,  rejoined:  "That  may  be,  but  I  am  not 
satisfied.  This  is  positively  wrong.  Go,  call  him 
back,  and  return  half  the  money  at  least,  or  I  will 
not  receive  one  cent  of  it  for  my  share." 

There  was  naturally  only  one  course  open  to  the 
embarrassed  junior.  He  hastened  after  Scott  and, 
to  that  gentleman's  astonishment,  restored  half  the 
fee. 

This  little  colloquy  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
both  bench  and  bar.  It  appears  to  have  especially 
interested  the  presiding  judge,  David  Davis,  who, 
calling  the  fault-finding  attorney  to  him,  said  in  a 
poorly  controlled  whisper,  which  could  be  heard 
throughout  the  court-room:  "Lincoln,  I  have  been 
watching  you  and  Lamon.  You  are  impoverishing 


162  HONEST    ABE 

this  bar  by  your  picayune  charges  of  fees,  and  the 
lawyers  have  reason  to  complain  of  you.  You  are 
now  almost  as  poor  as  Lazarus,  and  if  you  don't 
make  people  pay  you  more  for  your  services,  you 
will  die  as  poor  as  Job's  turkey." 

The  rebuke  was  warmly  applauded,  but  it  made 
no  impression  on  the  man  against  whom  it  had  been 
directed. 

"That  money,"  said  he,  "comes  out  of  the  pocket 
of  a  poor,  demented  girl,  and  I  would  rather  starve 
than  swindle  her  in  this  manner."  24 

The  matter  was  not  allowed,  however,  to  rest 
there.  In  the  evening  of  that  same  day,  Lincoln 
found  himself  arraigned  for  his  offense  before  the 
"  orgmathorial  court."  This  was  a  sort  of  mock- 
tribunal  maintained  by  Davis,  on  circuit,  to  try 
lawyers  who  might  be  charged  with  breaches  of  de- 
corum. No  member  of  the  jocund  company,  it  is 
safe  to  say,  had  ever  before  been  placed  in  the  dock 
for  the  heinous  crime  of  undervaluing  his  services. 
Yet  complaints  against  this  particular  respondent, 
as  the  judge  implied,  had  been  frequent  enough. 
Lamon  was  not  the  only  attorney  who  had  suffered, 
in  mind  and  pocket,  because  of  his  Quixotic  acts. 
Partner  Herndon,  himself  a  kindly  man,  is  said 
to  have  expostulated  repeatedly  without  effect ;  and 
so  far  as  the  bar  at  large  was  concerned,  some  of  its 
pillars  doubtless  felt  the  jolt  at  times  of  Lincoln's 
absurdly  low  standards.  He  had,  moreover,  been 
caught  red-handed  in  the  Scott  case,  so  that  the  plea 
of  a  certain  famous  British  barrister,  similarly  on 
trial  before  the  circuit  mess  for  disgracing  his  pro- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        163 

fession  by  accepting  too  small  a  fee,  would  hardly 
have  answered.  This  earlier  offender,  Sergeant 
William  Davy,  is  said  to  have  made  the  since  oft- 
quoted  defense:  "I  took  silver  because  I  could  not 
get  gold.  But  I  took  every  farthing  the  fellow  had  in 
the  world,  and  I  hope  you  don't  call  that  disgracing 
the  profession."25 

Davy  was  nevertheless  found  guilty  and  fined. 
So  was  Lincoln.  His  fellow  anglers  in  the  turbid 
waters  of  the  law  had  no  sympathy  with  the  rare 
sportsmanship  which  had  prompted  him  to  throw 
back  half  his  catch.  He  proved  to  be  a  true  sport, 
however,  in  more  ways  than  one.  The  fine  was  paid, 
we  are  told,  with  great  good  humor;  and  then  the 
culprit  told  stories  that  kept  the  court  in  an  uproar 
of  laughter  until  after  midnight. 

There  is  another  —  a  serious  —  side  to  this  ques- 
tion. It  was  succinctly  stated  by  Mr.  Hoffman  in 
this  passage  from  one  of  his  resolutions:  "As  a  gen- 
eral rule  I  will  carefully  avoid  what  is  called  the 
'taking  of  half  fees.'  And  though  no  one  can  be  so 
competent  as  myself  to  judge  what  may  be  a  just 
compensation  for  my  services,  yet  when  the  quid- 
dam  honorarium  has  been  established  by  usage  or 
law,  I  shall  regard  as  eminently  dishonorable  all 
underbidding  of  my  professional  brethren." 

But  Lincoln  could  not  see  it  so.  Strong  as  was  his 
sympathy  with  these  colleagues  at  the  bar,  they 
were  forgotten  when  he  sat  down  to  write  a  bill.  His 
own  modest  estimate  of  himself,  his  compassion  for 
clients  in  distress,  and  above  all  his  ever-present 
fear  of  taking  a  dishonest  advantage,  proved  to  be 


164  HONEST    ABE 

the  controlling  factors.  Influenced  by  such  habits  of 
mind,  to  the  very  end,  he  declared,  as  Lamon  states, 
that  their  firm  should  never,  with  his  consent,  de- 
serve the  reputation  enjoyed  by  those  shining  lights 
of  the  profession  —  "Catchem  and  Cheatem." 

To  infer  from  all  these  things  that  Lincoln  was 
wholly  shiftless  in  monetary  matters,  or  that  he  did 
not,  at  times,  gladly  receive  the  fees  which  had, 
according  to  his  own  rigid  standards,  been  fairly 
earned,  would  be  wide  of  the  mark.  He  welcomed, 
for  the  most  part,  in  fact,  the  gleanings  of  ordinary 
practice  from  clients  who  could  afford  to  pay.  Such 
small  sums  as  the  circuit  yielded,  and  they  usually 
were  small,  meant  much  to  him;  how  much,  may  be 
seen  in  the  little  side-light  thrown  on  the  subject  by 
another  one  of  his  local  partners.  Henry  C.  Whit- 
ney, recalling  the  end  of  a  session,  in  the  summer  of 
1856,  at  Urbana,  says:  "  He  had  collected  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  dollars  for  that  term's  business  thus 
far,  and  one  of  pur  clients  owed  him  ten  dollars, 
which  he  felt  disappointed  at  not  being  able  to  col- 
lect. So  I  gave  him  a  check  for  that  amount,  and 
went  with  him  to  the  bank  to  collect  it.  The  cashier, 
T.  S.  Hubbard,  who  paid  it,  is  still  living  in  Urbana, 
and  will  probably  remember  it.  I  do  not  remember 
to  have  seen  him  happier  than  when  he  had  got  his 
little  earnings  together,  being  less  than  forty  dollars, 
as  I  now  recollect  it,  and  had  his  carpet-bag  packed, 
ready  to  start  home."  26 

There  is  something  almost  pathetic  in  this  scene, 
when  one  stops  to  think  that  the  central  figure  was 
at  the  time  a  leader  of  the  Illinois  bar,  and  the 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        165 

very  man  whose  persistent  tenderness  of  his  clients' 
purses  had  made  him  an  object  of  censure  from  the 
bench.  Lincoln  himself  still  further  illuminates  the 
topic.  Early  in  his  practice,  while  associated  with 
the  thriftiest  of  his  Springfield  partners,  he  wrote  to 
one  James  S.  Irwin:  "Judge  Logan  and  myself  are 
willing  to  attend  to  any  business  in  the  Supreme 
Court  you  may  send  us.  As  to  fees,  it  is  impossible 
to  establish  a  rule  that  will  apply  in  all,  or  even  a 
great  many  cases.  We  believe  we  are  never  accused 
of  being  unreasonable  in  this  particular,  and  we 
would  always  be  easily  satisfied,  provided  we  could 
see  the  money;  but  whatever  fees  we  earn  at  a  dis- 
tance, if  not  paid  before,  we  have  noticed,  we  never 
hear  of  after  the  work  is  done.  We,  therefore,  are 
growing  a  little  sensitive  on  that  point."  27 

Under  this  same  head,  one  of  the  younger  lawyers 
has  recollected  a  piece  of  "fatherly"  advice  given  to 
him  by  Lincoln,  while  they  were  engaged  in  court. 
Addressing  the  fledgling  as  the  jury  went  out,  and 
referring  to  his  client,  a  shifty  fellow  who  sat  near 
by,  the  older  lawyer  whispered :  "You  had  better  try 
and  get  your  money  now.  If  the  jury  comes  in  with 
a  verdict  for  him,  you  won't  get  anything."  28 

So  much  for  what  the  speaker  once  termed  a 
"mere  question  of  bread  and  butter."  As  to  the  rest, 
when  clients  did  not  pay,  Lincoln  was  averse  to  suing 
them.  His  high  ideals  of  professional  ethics,  no  less 
than  a  certain  personal  fealty  toward  those  who  had 
honored  him  with  their  confidence,  stood  in  the  way 
of  such  prosecutions.  And  when  any  associates  did, 
on  rare  occasions,  carry  the  collection  of  unpaid  bills 


166  HONEST    ABE 

for  legal  services  into  court,  it  was  done  contrary  to 
his  wishes. 

An  instance  of  what  would  then  be  likely  to  hap- 
pen has  been  related  by  Mr.  Herndon.  "I  remem- 
ber," says  he,  "once  a  man  who  had  been  indicted 
for  forgery  or  fraud  employed  us  to  defend  him.  The 
illness  of  the  prosecuting  attorney  caused  some  delay 
in  the  case,  and  our  client,  becoming  dissatisfied  at 
our  conduct  of  the  case,  hired  some  one  else,  who 
superseded  us  most  effectually.  The  defendant  de- 
clining to  pay  us  the  fee  demanded,  on  the  ground 
that  we  had  not  represented  him  at  the  trial  of  the 
cause,  I  brought  suit  against  him  in  Lincoln's  ab- 
sence, and  obtained  judgment  for  our  fee.  After 
Lincoln's  return  from  the  circuit,  the  fellow  hunted 
him  up  and,  by  means  of  a  carefully  constructed  tale, 
prevailed  on  him  to  release  the  judgment  without 
receiving  a  cent  of  pay.  The  man's  unkind  treat- 
ment of  us  deserved  no  such  mark  of  generosity  from 
Lincoln,  and  yet  he  could  not  resist  the  appeal  of  any 
one  in  poverty  and  want."  29 

A  notable  exception  to  the  rule  against  suing  for 
fees  was  made  in  the  case  of  one  wealthy  client  — 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company.  That  cor- 
poration, through  its  attorneys,  Mason,  Brayman, 
and  James  F.  Joy,  sent  Mr.  Lincoln,  during  the  year 
1853,  a  retainer  of  two  hundred  dollars  in  an  im- 
portant action.  Suit  had  been  brought  by  the  cor- 
poration against  McLean  County  to  enjoin  the 
collection  of  taxes  assessed  on  railroad  lands.  The 
question  at  issue  involved  the  interpretation  of  the 
charter  whereby  the  corporation  had  been  granted 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        167 

exemption  from  local  taxation,  on  condition  that  it 
paid  annually  a  certain  percentage  of  its  gross  earn- 
ings into  the  State  Treasury.  Such  immunity  the 
Legislature,  according  to  some  county  officers,  had 
no  right  to  confer;  and  the  McLean  authorities  in- 
sisted upon  taxing  so  much  of  the  railroad  property 
as  lay  within  their  jurisdiction.  This  course  had 
brought  about  the  case  at  bar  by  which  it  was 
planned  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  that  law. 
When  the  suit  came  to  trial,  Lincoln,  facing  Stuart 
and  Logan,  is  said  to  have  conducted  the  plaintiff's 
side  "with  rare  skill";  but  the  verdict,  despite  all 
his  exertions,  went  against  him.  An  appeal  was 
promptly  taken,  however,  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
where,  after  twice  arguing  the  case,  and  after  two 
years  of  laborious  litigation,  all  told,  he  succeeded 
in  reversing  the  decision  of  the  Circuit  Court. 

This  victory  meant  much  to  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company.  Although  a  comparatively  small 
sum  was  involved  in  the  suit  itself,  an  adverse  re- 
sult would  have  brought  down  upon  the  company 
a  mass  of  claims,  which,  as  some  thought,  might 
have  led  to  bankruptcy.  The  road  owned  nearly 
two  million  acres  of  land  and  ran  through  twenty- 
six  counties.  Had  all  these  several  jurisdictions  suc- 
ceeded in  laying  their  annual  burdens  upon  the  com- 
pany, half  a  million  dollars  at  interest  would  hardly 
have  defrayed  the  tax.  In  view  of  all  these  facts, 
Lincoln  considered  two  thousand  dollars  a  moderate 
compensation,  and  presented  a  bill  for  that  amount. 
What  was  his  chagrin,  however,  to  have  Mr.  Joy 
disallow  the  account,  because  it  impressed  him  as  an 


168  HONEST    ABE 

exorbitant  charge  from  a  "common  country  lawyer." 
The  modesty  of  a  Socrates  or  a  Cato  might  have 
succumbed  before  such  a  rebuff.  Lincoln  withdrew 
the  bill,  and  started  for  home.  On  the  way,  he 
stopped  at  Bloomington,  where  the  affair  became 
known  to  some  of  his  colleagues  on  the  circuit.  In 
their  indignation  over  the  company's  shabby  con- 
duct, they  persuaded  him  to  make  the  charge  five 
thousand  dollars,  and  to  set  forth  the  increased  de- 
mand by  means  of  the  following  unique  document: — 

The  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company, 

To  A.  Lincoln  Dr. 
To  professional  services  in  the 
case  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company  against  the 
County  of  McLean,  argued  in 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  at  December 
term,  1855, $5000.00 

We,  the  undersigned  members  of  the  Illinois  Bar, 
understanding  that  the  above  entitled  cause  was 
twice  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  the 
judgment  therein  decided  the  question  of  the  claim 
of  counties  and  other  minor  municipal  corporations 
to  the  property  of  said  railroad  company,  and  set- 
tled said  question  against  said  claim  and  in  favor  of 
said  railroad  company,  are  of  opinion  the  sum  above 
charged  as  a  fee  is  not  unreasonable. 

Grant  Goodrich.  N.  H.  Purple. 

N.  B.  Judd.  O.  H.  Browning. 

Archibald  Williams.      R.  S.  Blackwell. 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        169 

These  signatures  were  probably  not  all  appended 
at  Bloomington,  nor  were  these  signers  the  only 
lawyers  whom  Lincoln  consulted.  Anxious  to  deal 
fairly  with  the  company  beyond  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt,  he  appealed  to  several  other  prominent  attor- 
neys for  their  opinions.  One  of  these,  Mr.  Koerner, 
who  had  enjoyed  peculiar  opportunities  for  reaching 
a  judgment  in  the  matter,  says:  "He  wrote  me  a 
letter  stating  that  as  I  knew  all  about  the  case,  and 
had  been  present  when  it  was  argued,  he  would  be 
obliged  to  me  to  give  him  my  opinion  whether  his 
demand  was  unreasonable  or  not.  He  also  stated 
that  he  had  written  to  some  other  members  of  the 
bar,  and  he  would  be  guided  by  our  opinion.  I  ad- 
vised him  that  his  charge  was  very  unreasonable, 
and  that  he  ought  to  have  charged  at  least  ten  thou- 
sand dollars.  I  presume  he  received  about  the  same 
answer  from  the  other  gentlemen." 

At  all  events,  Lincoln's  bill,  as  revised,  was  sent 
in.  The  company  still  refused  payment,  and  there 
seemed  but  one  course  open  to  him.  So  he  promptly 
brought  suit,  in  McLean  County  Circuit  Court,  for 
the  amount  of  his  strangely  amended  reckoning, 
with  costs. 

When  the  cause  was  reached  for  trial,  before 
Judge  Davis,  on  the  morning  of  June  18,  1857,  "the 
defendants,"  as  the  ancient  judicial  formula  ex- 
presses it,  "came  not."  A  jury  having  been  em- 
paneled, Mr.  Lincoln  briefly  presented  his  case,  and 
upon  its  verdict  was  awarded  a  judgment  in  full. 
By  afternoon  one  of  the  company's  general  solici- 
tors, John  M.  Douglas,  who  had  been  delayed,  ar- 


iyo  HONEST    ABE 

rived  from  Chicago,  too  late,  of  course,  for  the  trial. 
Greatly  disturbed  by  the  embarrassing  position  in 
which  the  default  placed  him,  he  sought  out  Lincoln 
and  begged  to  have  the  case  reopened  so  that  the 
corporation  might  have  its  day  in  court.  This  was 
readily  consented  to,  the  judgment  was  set  aside, 
and  a  few  days  later  the  issue  was  again  tried.  On 
that  occasion,  Mr.  Douglas  called  attention  to  the 
two  hundred  dollars  paid  four  years  previously  as  a 
retainer.  It  had  been  forgotten  by  Lincoln,  who  at 
once  reduced  his  claim  accordingly.  So  when  the 
new  jury  brought  in  a  second  verdict,  the  figure  stood 
at  four  thousand  eight  hundred  dollars,  and  that 
amount,  with  costs,  the  defendant  promptly  paid.30 
In  justice  to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Com- 
pany its  own  statement  of  this  affair  should  not 
be  overlooked.  From  an  elaborately  printed  mono- 
graph, illustrated  by  reproductions  of  the  documents 
in  the  case,  and  published  within  recent  years,  we 
quote  what  is  offered  as  an  official  explanation: 
"The  then  general  counsel  of  the  road  advised  Mr. 
Lincoln  that  while  he  recognized  the  value  of  his 
services,  still,  the  payment  of  so  large  a  fee  to  a 
Western  country  lawyer  without  protest  would  em- 
barrass the  general  counsel  with  the  board  of  direc- 
tors in  New  York,  who  would  not  understand,  as 
would  a  lawyer,  the  importance  of  the  case  and  the 
consequent  value  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  services.  It  was 
intimated  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  however,  that  if  he  would 
bring  suit  for  his  bill  in  some  court  of  competent 
jurisdiction,  and  judgment  were  rendered  in  his 
favor,  the  judgment  would  be  paid  without  appeal." 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        171 

This  version  of  the  affair  seems  hardly  convincing. 
The  verdict  of  the  trial  court  was,  it  is  true,  ac- 
cepted as  final  by  the  railroad  officials;  but  they 
have  left  slender  evidence  on  which  to  base  the  lat- 
ter-day inference  that  the  suit  was  a  mere  formality, 
framed  up  between  friends  to  guard  against  the 
censure  of  non-resident  directors.  The  company's 
own  exhibits,  examined  in  the  light  of  statements 
made  by  certain  contemporary  lawyers,  lead  one  — 
with  all  candor  be  it  said  —  to  a  contrary  conclu- 
sion. Even  the  claim  that  amicable  relations  con- 
tinued uninterrupted,  and  that  Lincoln  acted  as 
counsel  for  the  railroad  in  several  important  matters 
thereafter,  loses  its  force  when  one  remembers  his 
peculiar  sweetness  of  character.  He  might  well  have 
conducted  the  suit,  in  serious  earnest,  without  los- 
ing his  temper  or  his  client.31  Indeed,  it  is  difficult 
for  us,  after  studying  the  man  thus  far,  to  conceive 
of  him  as  really  quarreling  over  a  sum  of  money  — 
large  or  small.  And  if,  when  enforcing  the  collec- 
tion of  perhaps  his  biggest  fee,  he  managed  to  take 
a  somewhat  arrogant  patron  into  court  without 
snapping  delicate  professional  ties,  the  feat  should 
be  explained,  not  by  the  fanciful  surmise  that  there 
was  no  cause  of  irritation  between  them,  but  rather 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  —  Lincoln.32 

This  man,  of  all  men,  bringing  suit  to  collect  a 
disputed  bill  for  his  services,  presents  a  spectacle 
which  should  be  classed  among  the  caprices  of  his- 
tory. It  would  have  seemed  more  natural,  by  far, 
had  the  plaintiff's  r61e  in  that  action  been  filled  by 
any  one  of  the  colleagues  who  certified  to  the  fair- 


172  HONEST    ABE 

ness  of  the  claim.  Though  hardly  a  mercenary  bar, 
the  lawyers  of  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit  were 
largely,  as  the  phrase  goes,  alive  to  the  main  chance. 
Not  a  few  of  them  at  this  period  laid  up  competen- 
cies ;  while  here  and  there  an  able  practitioner  man- 
aged to  grow  rich.  The  presiding  judge  himself, 
David  Davis,  —  he  who  had  lectured  Lincoln  on  his 
"picayune  charges,"  — possessed  the  true  Midas 
touch.  Yet  the  ample  fortune  which  was  eventually 
credited  to  him,  as  indeed  much  of  the  wealth 
amassed  by  the  others,  may  be  traced  back  to  ac- 
tivities and  speculations  outside  the  law.  Such 
modes  of  money-getting  held  no  attractions  for  Lin- 
coln. His  early  misadventures  in  business  had  cured 
him  of  mercantile  ambitions,  and  when  friends  pre- 
sented alluring  opportunities  for  profitable  invest- 
ments they  were  invariably  declined.  He  might 
truly  have  replied  as  did  Webster  once,  under  simi- 
lar circumstances:  "Gentlemen,  if  you  have  any 
projects  for  money-making,  I  pray  you  keep  me  out 
of  them.  My  singular  destiny  mars  everything  of 
that  sort,  and  would  be  sure  to  overwhelm  your  own 
better  fortunes." 

In  Lincoln's  case,  however,  this  unwillingness  to 
seek  revenues  beyond  the  pale  of  the  profession  lay 
deeper  than  any  mere  question  concerning  profit  or 
loss.  The  old-fashioned  ideals,  which  debarred  an 
advocate  from  pursuing  any  outside  occupation  of  a 
gainful  nature,  had  taken  firm  hold  upon  his  convic- 
tions. Indeed,  he  carried  to  its  extreme  this  aversion 
for  hampering  himself  with  whatever  smacked  of 
trade,  going  so  far  as  to  reject  even  the  mint,  anise, 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        173 

and  cummin  of  related  business  that  many  able 
attorneys  about  him  were  glad  to  cull  from  adjacent 
fields.  Accordingly,  when  some  Springfield  prop- 
erty had  been  levied  upon,  in  a  suit  brought  by  Lo- 
gan and  Lincoln,  for  certain  wholesale  merchants  at 
Louisville,  the  junior  partner  thus  curtly  dismissed  a 
request  of  their  clients  that  they  collect  the  rents 
which  might  accrue:  "As  to  the  real  estate,  we  can- 
not attend  to  it  as  agents,  and  we  therefore  recom- 
mend that  you  give  the  charge  of  it  to  Mr.  Isaac  S. 
Britton,  a  trustworthy  man,  and  one  whom  the  Lord 
made  on  purpose  for  such  business."  33 

Yet  the  man  who  wrote  those  lines  was  in  debt. 
His  situation,  generally  speaking,  must  have  been 
far  from  prosperous.  At  about  this  very  period,  we 
find  him  frankly  giving  poverty  as  the  reason  for  de- 
clining an  invitation  to  visit  Joshua  F.  Speed,  whom 
he  very  much  desired  to  see  again.  That  dear  friend, 
happily  married  and  domiciled  in  the  South,  had 
been  sending  insistent  messages  to  which  Lincoln 
finally  replied:  "I  do  not  think  I  can  come  to  Ken- 
tucky this  season.  I  am  so  poor,  and  make  so  little 
headway  in  the  world,  that  I  drop  back  in  a  month 
of  idleness  as  much  as  I  gain  in  a  year's  sowing."  34 

The  writer  —  gaunt  and  grimly  humorous  — 
might  well-nigh  have  gone  as  far  as  once  did  another 
threadbare  limb  of  the  law,  who  declared,  "I  am  so 
poor,  I  do  not  make  a  shadow  when  the  sun  shines." 
Indeed,  to  complete  the  traditional  picture  of  a 
needy  barrister,  Lincoln  apparently  lacked  but  one 
thing  —  a  family.  And  so  he  married.  Within  a  few 
months  after  the  writing  of  that  lugubrious  message, 


174  HONEST    ABE 

Mary  Todd,  a  high-spirited,  well-nurtured  Ken- 
tucky lady,  who  was  living  with  relatives  in  Spring- 
field, became  his  wife.  Their  marriage  ceremony, 
conducted  by  the  Reverend  Charles  Dresser  accord- 
ing to  the  ritual  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  appears  to 
have  been  somewhat  of  a  novelty  in  Springfield  at 
that  time.  Certainly  one  of  the  guests  was  taken  off 
his  guard  when  he  heard  it.  For  as  the  bridegroom 
repeated  after  the  rector,  in  an  impressive  manner, 
the  formula,  "With  this  ring  I  thee  endow  with  all 
my  goods  and  chattels,  lands  and  tenements,"  Judge 
Thomas  C.  Browne,  the  Falstaff  of  the  bench,  stand- 
ing close  to  the  high  contracting  parties,  exclaimed : 
"Good  gracious,  Lincoln,  the  statute  fixes  all  that!" 

This  sage  interruption  was  too  much  for  the  good 
minister's  sense  of  humor,  and  some  moments 
elapsed  before  he  could  proceed.35  One  wonders 
whether,  on  the  under  side  of  his  merriment,  there 
may  not  have  frolicked  a  suspicion  that,  had  rite  or 
statute  been  invoked,  then  and  there,  in  the  bride's 
behalf,  she  would  have  carried  away  but  a  slim  en- 
dowment of  worldly  goods.  On  her  part,  moreover, 
the  lady  was  apparently  quite  as  poor  as  the  man 
she  married.  For  like  many  other  wives  whose 
mates  have  attained  professional  eminence,  Mary 
Todd  brought  her  husband  no  fortune  to  paralyze 
his  industry. 

The  young  couple  would  gladly  have  made  a  hon- 
eymoon journey  to  their  native  State  and  availed 
themselves  of  Speed's  now  repeatedly  offered  hospi- 
tality; but  again,  poverty  stood  in  the  way.  They 
were  fain,  therefore,  to  content  themselves  with  a 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        175 

room  at  Mrs.  Beck's  Globe  Tavern,  where  the  mu- 
nificent sum  of  four  dollars  paid  their  whole  bill,  each 
week,  for  board  and  Ipdging.  This  frugal  arrange- 
ment lasted  somewhat  more  than  a  year,  after  which 
the  birth  of  their  first  child  necessitated  a  change.36 
So  they  bought  from  the  Reverend  Mr.  Dresser  his 
frame  cottage,  on  the  corner  of  Eighth  and  Jackson 
Streets,  that  was  to  serve  them  as  a  residence  for  the 
rest  of  their  days  in  Springfield.  It  appears  to  have 
been  a  modest  home  among  modest  surroundings. 
Here  the  little  family  took  root,  here  the  problems 
of  the  growing  household  were  worked  out,  and  here 
Abraham  Lincoln  lived  the  simple  life  of  an  honest 
gentleman.37  His  personal  wants  were  few,  —  so 
few,  in  fact,  as  to  make  him  almost  seem  rich.  He 
had  no  expensive  habits  and  one  looks  in  vain  for 
what  cynics  sometimes  term  redeeming  vices.  A 
man  whose  parents  were,  to  quote  one  old  settler, 
"torn-down  poor,"  does  not  enter  upon  life  handi- 
capped by  a  love  of  luxury.  In  Lincoln's  case  the 
privations  of  earlier  days  had  left  him  largely  in- 
different even  to  such  creature  comforts  as  the  re- 
finements of  later  times  brought  within  reach.  And 
though  he  rarely  then  referred  to  those  trying  back- 
woods experiences,  the  primitive  ways  instilled  by 
them  never  quite  got  out  of  his  system.  Always  in 
some  degree  a  son  of  the  soil,  he  consciously  bore 
himself  as  belonging  to  "the  plain  people."  It  was 
the  plain  mode  of  living,  therefore,  that  appealed  to 
him,  not  only  because  the  more  elegant  customs  were 
distasteful,  but  also  because  he  felt  keenly  aware  of 
how  incongruous  they  would  have  been  with  his  real 


176  HONEST    ABE 

self.  Nor  does  the  closest  scrutiny  reveal  in  all  this 
any  trace  of  affectation.  The  ostentatious  display 
of  poverty,  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  the 
vulgar  mannerisms  whereby  our  so-called  self-made 
men  sometimes  make  capital  out  of  their  lowly 
origins,  were  alike  foreign  to  his  nature.  He  was  true 
here  as  elsewhere.  In  fact,  when  all  is  said,  the  man's 
simplicity  of  life  must  be  counted  but  one  more  ex- 
pression of  his  inherent  honesty. 

Lincoln  made  it  a  practice  to  serve  himself.  He 
really  disliked  to  have  others  wait  upon  his  wants. 
Self-reliant  in  the  extreme,  to  go  for  a  thing  came 
easier  with  him  than  to  send  for  it;  to  do  what  was 
required  seemed  simpler  than  to  order  it  done.  He 
would  walk  to  the  house  from  the  office  for  a  docu- 
ment, though  willing  clerks  were  on  hand  eager  to 
act  as  his  messengers.  If  the  open  fire,  at  home  or 
elsewhere,  needed  a  fresh  supply  of  fuel  that  did  not 
happen  to  be  promptly  forthcoming,  he  took  up 
the  axe,  shed  his  coat,  and  went  vigorously  to  work 
over  the  woodpile.  When  a  small  stick  was  once 
wanted  for  some  special  purpose  by  a  visitor  at  the 
Springfield  residence,  the  master  of  the  house  fetched 
it  after  a  brief  session  with  his  saw  in  the  rear  shed ; 
and  when  a  surprised  comment  ensued,  Lincoln 
laughingly  replied :  "We're  not  much  used  to  serv- 
ants about  this  place.  Besides,  you  know,  I  have 
always  been  my  own  wood-sawyer."  38 

The  speaker  was  so  little  used  to  servants,  in  fact, 
that  even  when  latterly  they  were  at  hand,  he  often 
opened  the  front  door  for  visitors  himself.  This 
habit  keenly  annoyed  Mrs.  Lincoln,  particularly  as 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        177 

his  attire  on  these  occasions  appears  not  always  to 
have  conformed  with  the  conventional  requirements 
laid  down  by  authorities  on  etiquette. 

But  once,  when  she  was  lamenting  over  certain 
social  breaches  of  that  kind,  a  member  of  her  family 
said :  "Mary,  if  I  had  a  husband  with  a  mind  such  as 
yours  has,  I  would  n't  care  what  he  did." 

To  which  the  lady,  much  mollified,  replied:  " It  is 
very  foolish.  It  is  a  small  thing  to  complain  of." 

And  what  might  one  have  expected  of  a  man,  who 
was  not  only  his  "own  wood-sawyer,"  but  his  own 
stable-boy  as  well?  For  when  at  home,  Mr.  Lincoln 
usually,  during  that  period,  milked  the  cow,  fed  the 
horse,  and  looked  after  their  several  wants,  in  a 
rudely  constructed  little  barn  which  stood  behind 
the  house.39  This  same  democratic  simplicity  and 
absence  of  all  pretentions  to  elegance  were  observed 
about  the  untidy  little  offices  in  which  he  success- 
ively practiced  his  profession.  Nor  was  it  otherwise 
on  circuit.  The  sorry  nag  that  he  sometimes  be- 
strode and  the  shabby  buggy  in  which  the  animal  at 
other  times  pulled  him  from  town  to  town  looked 
consistent  with  the  rest.  When  accommodations, 
moreover,  at  the  local  hotels  were  poor,  —  as  they 
frequently  appear  to  have  been,  —  his  easy-going 
temper  remained  unruffled.  "He  never  complained 
of  the  food,  bed,  or  lodgings,"  said  Judge  Davis.  "If 
every  other  fellow  grumbled  at  the  bill-of-fare,  which 
greeted  us  at  many  of  the  dingy  taverns,  Lincoln 
said  nothing."  40  To  which  Joseph  Gillespie,  an- 
other friend  of  the  old  circuit  days,  adds:  "  He  had  a 
realizing  sense  that  he  was  generally  set  down  by 


178  HONEST    ABE 

city  snobs  as  a  country  Jake,  and  would  accept,  in  a 
public-house,  any  place  assigned  to  him,  whether  in 
"the  basement  or  the  attic,  and  he  seldom  called  at 
the  table  for  anything,  but  helped  himself  to  what 
was  within  reach.  Indeed,  he  never  knew  what  he 
did  eat.  He  said  to  me  once  that  he  never  felt  his 
own  utter  unworthiness  so  much  as  when  in  the 
presence  of  a  hotel  clerk  or  waiter."  41 

It  would  be  interesting  to  determine  how  much 
of  this  self-depreciation  was  due  to  the  unfavorable 
impression  that  Lincoln  often  made  upon  those  who 
saw  him  for  the  first  time.  By  all  accounts  he  must 
have  been,  in  those  days,  anything  but  an  object  of 
beauty.  His  six-feet-four  of  homely,  awkward  angu- 
larity apparently  owed  little  to  the  clothier's  or  the 
haberdasher's  art.  For  in  matters  of  dress  as  in 
other  respects,  he  was  still  the  plebeian,  carrying 
about  him,  so  to  say,  the  broad-axe  air  which  sug- 
gested, if  it  did  not  actually  revive,  the  crudities  of 
frontier  customs.  He  no  longer,  it  is  true,  wore,  as 
in  his  youth,  a  coon- skin  cap  or  birch-bark  moc- 
casins with  hickory  soles.  His  shirts  were  no  longer 
of  linsey-woolsey,  nor  his  trousers  of  butternut  jeans 
or  untanned  skins.  Yet  he  never  quite  outgrew  the 
image  of  himself  so  arrayed.  What  appears  to  have 
been  particularly  vivid  in  his  memory,  moreover, 
was  a  picture  of  flat-boat  times  on  the  river,  when 
his  buckskin  breeches  —  the  only  pair  —  happened 
to  fall  into  the  water  with  their  owner  inside  of  them. 
Relating  such  an  experience  once,  he  said:  "Now, 
if  you  know  the  nature  of  buckskin,  when  wet  and 
dried  by  the  sun,  it  will  shrink,  and  my  breeches 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        179 

kept  shrinking  until  they  left  several  inches  of  my 
legs  bare,  between  the  tops  of  my  socks  and  the 
lower  part  of  my  breeches;  and  whilst  I  was  grow- 
ing taller  they  were  becoming  shorter,  and  so  much 
tighter  that  they  left  a  blue  streak  around  my  legs 
that  can  be  seen  to  this  day."  42 

Similar  tendencies,  in  Lincoln's  later,  more  mod- 
ern apparel,  to  leave  a  sort  of  neutral  zone  unoccu- 
pied between  trousers  and  shoes,  recurred  with  ata- 
vistic persistence  long  after  he  became  accustomed 
to  better  things.  In  fact,  such  misfits  troubled  him 
but  slightly  during  the  period  of  his  career  at  the  bar. 
"He  probably  had  as  little  taste  about  dress  and 
attire  as  anybody  that  ever  was  born,"  writes  one 
attorney  who  saw  him  often  in  those  days.  "He 
simply  wore  clothes  because  it  was  needful  and  cus- 
tomary. Whether  they  fitted  or  looked  well  was  en- 
tirely above  or  beneath  his  comprehension."  The 
same  observer  says:  "When  I  first  knew  him  his 
attire  and  physical  habits  were  on  a  plane  with 
those  of  an  ordinary  farmer.  His  hat  was  innocent 
of  a  nap.  His  boots  had  no  acquaintance  with  black- 
ing. His  clothes  had  not  been  introduced  to  the 
whisk-broom.  His  carpet-bag  was  well  worn  and 
dilapidated.  His  umbrella  was  substantial,  but  of  a 
faded  green,  well  worn,  the  knob  gone,  and  the  name 
'A.  Lincoln*  cut  out  of  white  muslin  and  sewed  in 
the  inside.  And  for  an  outer  garment,  a  short  cir- 
cular blue  cloak,  which  he  got  in  Washington  in 
1849,  and  kept  for  ten  years."  43 

Another  friend  and  colleague,  James  W.  Somers, 
recalling  a  first  photographic  glimpse  of  Mr.  Lin- 


i8o  HONEST    ABE 

coin  during  the  earlier  days  on  circuit,  said:  "His 
dress  was  the  most  peculiar  thing  about  him.  The 
trousers  were  several  inches  too  short  and  illy  fitted. 
The  coat  was  the  old-style  swallow-tail,  and  was 
also  too  small.  His  head  was  surmounted  by  an 
antiquated  silk  hat,  battered  and  rusty,  as  was  his 
entire  suit  of  broadcloth,  originally  black.  In  his 
hands  or  under  his  arm  he  carried  a  faded  green 
gingham  umbrella.  He  wore  a  black  silk  or  mohair 
stock  around  his  neck,  two  and  a  half  or  three  inches 
wide,  buckled  at  the  back,  but  with  no  tie  or  bow  in 
front.  At  the  fall  term  court  he  usually  wore  a  short 
circular  cloak,  extending  down  to  the  hips,  and  much 
the  worse  for  wear." 

Disregard  of  fine  apparel,  moreover,  was  not  lim- 
ited by  any  means  to  Lincoln's  younger  days  at  the 
bar.  As  late  as  1858,  after  he  had  achieved  a  promi- 
nent place  at  the  bar,  his  appearance  made  a  similar 
impression  upon  Carl  Schurz,  who  drew  this  graphic 
thumb-nail  sketch  of  him:  "On  his  head  he  wore 
a  somewhat  battered  'stove-pipe'  hat.  His  neck 
emerged,  long  and  sinewy,  from  a  white  collar  turned 
down  over  a  thin  black  necktie.  His  lank,  ungainly 
body  was  clad  in  a  rusty  black  dress-coat  with 
sleeves  that  should  have  been  longer;  but  his  arms 
appeared  so  long  that  the  sleeves  of  a  'store*  coat 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  cover  them  all  the  way 
down  to  the  wrists.  His  black  trousers,  too,  per- 
mitted a  very  full  view  of  his  large  feet.  On  his  left 
arm  he  carried  a  gray  woolen  shawl,  which  evidently 
served  him  for  an  overcoat  in  chilly  weather.  His 
left  hand  held  a  cotton  umbrella  of  the  bulging  kind, 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        181 

and  also  a  black  satchel  that  bore  the  marks  of  long 
and  hard  usage."  44 

Evidently  the  age  or  condition  of  a  garment  was 
no  reason,  in  Lincoln's  eyes,  for  discarding  it.  On 
the  contrary,  he  appears  at  times  to  have  cherished 
an  old  article  of  dress  as  one  would  an  old  friend. 
But  such  attachments  have  their  penalties.  And  we 
find  him  in  the  court-room,  —  yes,  on  one  occasion, 
in  the  very  presence  of  the  court,  —  making  hasty 
repairs  to  ward  off  untoward  accidents.  Still  other 
inconveniences  grew  out  of  Lincoln's  inattention  to 
dress.  He  had  not  been  practicing  long  before  his 
partner,  Major  John  T.  Stuart,  received  a  retainer 
to  defend  one  John  W.  Baddeley,  against  whom  a 
suit  was  pending  in  the  McLean  County  Circuit 
Court.  When  this  case  came  to  trial,  the  major, 
finding  that  he  could  not  attend,  sent  the  junior 
member  of  the  firm,  with  a  letter  of  introduction, 
to  act  as  counsel  in  his  stead.  Baddeley  gave  one 
glance  at  the  letter,  and  one  at  the  ungainly,  ill- 
dressed  bearer  of  it.  That  a  man  who  presented  so 
unpromising  an  appearance  should  come  offering  to 
be  his  representative  in  the  august  precincts  of  the 
law  irritated  him  beyond  measure.  He  discharged 
a  volley  of  abuse  at  the  astonished  Lincoln,  paid  his 
respects,  in  similar  terms,  to  the  absent  Stuart,  and 
straightway  hired  another  lawyer,  James  A.  Mc- 
Dougall,  to  defend  the  suit.  What  reply,  if  any, 
was  made  by  the  innocent  object  of  all  this  wrath  is 
not  known.  He  endured  it,  we  are  told,  however, 
without  resentment;  and  later  on,  when  these  first 
unfavorable  impressions  had  given  place  to  warm 


182  HONEST    ABE 

appreciation,  counted  that  very  client  among  his 
stanchest  admirers.45 

Nor  was  Baddeley  the  only  one  to  be  deceived  by 
Lincoln's  unprepossessing  garb.  So  keen  an  intellect 
as  Edwin  M.  Stanton's  wholly  misjudged  him, 
many  years  thereafter,  on  the  occasion  of  their  first 
meeting  at  Cincinnati,  in  the  famous  McCormick 
versus  Manny  reaper  case;  and  that,  too,  notwith- 
standing the  eminent  position  which  the  Springfield 
lawyer  had  by  that  time  attained  among  his  profes- 
sional brethren  at  home.  For  this  critical  associate 
could  see  no  promise  of  forensic  ability  in  the  man, 
to  whom  he  contemptuously  referred  as  a  "long, 
lank  creature  from  Illinois,  wearing  a  dirty  linen 
duster  for  a  coat,  on  the  back  of  which  the  perspira- 
tion had  splotched  wide  stains  that  resembled  a  map 
of  the  continent."  46  Stanton's  disdainful  treatment 
rankled  in  the  gentle  soul  of  Lincoln.  He  began, 
some  time  after  the  affair,  to  wear  better  clothes  — 
better  in  texture  if  not  in  fit.  But  he  never  learned 
to  take  an  interest  in  fine  linen,  or  to  spend  on  his 
person  more  than  was  necessary  to  satisfy  the  ordi- 
nary demands  of  society. 

Thus  much  for  the  man's  simple  habits.  A  lawyer 
whose  immediate  wants  were,  all  in  all,  so  moderate, 
certainly  had  no  personal  incentive  —  whatever  may 
have  been  his  standards  of  honesty  —  for  any  but  up- 
right methods  in  his  practice.  Like  Manius  Curius, 
over  that  historic  dinner  of  turnips  at  the  chimney- 
side,  he  prized  honor  with  modest  living  above 
meretricious  wealth  and  the  luxuries  it  might  buy. 

To  assume,  however,  that  there  were  not  numer- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        183 

ous  demands  upon  Lincoln  for  what  money  could 
procure,  would  be  far  from  the  fact.  A  kind  husband 
and  indulgent  father,  it  distressed  him  to  refuse  his 
family  anything.  All  their  reasonable  wants  he  did, 
in  truth,  cheerfully  provide  for,  as  she  who  knew 
him  best  bore  affectionate  testimony.  And  once, 
when  he  was  contrasted  in  her  presence  with  a  cer- 
tain well-favored  rival,  the  little  wife  retorted: 
"Mr.  Lincoln  may  not  be  as  handsome  a  figure,  but 
the  people  are  perhaps  not  aware  that  his  heart  is 
as  large  as  his  arms  are  long." 

Still,  there  were  many  who  had  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve in  such  a  consonance  between  length  of  limb 
and  breadth  of  sympathy.  Nor  was  their  number 
limited,  by  any  means,  to  those  on  whom,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  conferred  professional  kindnesses.  For 
others  frequently  felt  the  sustaining  grip  of  that 
sinewy  helping  hand;  and  the  hospitality  dispensed 
in  the  modest  little  home  made  a  lasting  impression 
upon  the  circle  of  friends,  who  were  favored  from 
time  to  time  with  coveted  invitations.  Then,  too, 
among  the  uses  that  Lincoln  had  for  money  must  be 
reckoned  those  numberless  little  charities  which  are 
of  the  same  blood  as  great  and  holy  deeds.  A  typ- 
ical instance,  eloquent  in  its  brevity,  is  supplied  by 
a  slip  of  paper,  dated  September  25,  1858.  It  reads: 

My  old  friend  Henry  Chew,  the  bearer  of  this,  is 
in  a  strait  for  some  furniture  to  commence  house- 
keeping. If  any  person  will  furnish  him  twenty- 
five  dollars'  worth,  and  he  does  not  pay  for  it  by  the 

1st  of  January  next,  I  will. 

A.  LINCOLN. 


184  HONEST    ABE 

With  this  scrap  has  been  preserved  the  obvious 
sequel  :  — 

HON.  A.  LINCOLN,  Springfield,  Illinois. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND:  I  herewith  inclose  your  order 
which  you  gave  your  friend  Henry  Chew.  You  will 
please  send  me  a  draft  for  the  same  and  oblige  yours, 

S.  LITTLE. 

URBANA,  February  16, 


Another  generous  act,  of  a  different  character,  is 
gratefully  recalled  by  an  old  resident  of  Spring- 
field, Dr.  William  Jayne.  He  tells  how  the  "Phi 
Alpha"  Society  at  Illinois  College,  in  Jacksonville, 
arranged  a  series  of  lectures,  the  profits  from  which 
were  to  be  expended  on  books  for  the  library.  One 
of  the  lecturers  during  1857  was  Mr.  Lincoln.  On 
the  night  of  his  appearance,  after  his  address  had 
been  delivered,  and  the  rather  meager  audience  had 
departed,  he  said,  with  a  kindly  smile,  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  society:  "I  have  not  made  much  money 
for  you  to-night." 

At  which  the  young  officer  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  finances  interposed:  "When  we  pay  for  rent  of 
the  hall,  music,  and  advertising,  and  your  compen- 
sation, there  will  not  be  much  left  to  buy  books  for 
the  library." 

"Well,  boys,"  replied  Lincoln,  "be  hopeful.  Pay 
me  my  railroad  fare  and  fifty  cents  for  my  supper  at 
the  hotel,  and  we  are  square."  48 

The  speaker's  benevolence  on  other  occasions 
must  have  been  carried  to  extremes;  for  partner 
Herndon  was  repeatedly  heard  to  murmur  his  dis- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        185 

approval  and  a  student  in  their  office  reports  him  as 
saying:  "Lincoln  would  n't  have  a  dollar  to  bless 
himself  with  if  some  one  else  did  n't  look  out  for 
him.  He  never  can  say  '  No '  to  any  one  who  puts  up 
a  poor  mouth,  but  will  hand  out  the  last  dollar  he 
has,  sometimes  when  he  needs  it  himself,  and  needs 
it  badly."  49 

This  view  was  apparently  shared  by  the  plucky 
little  woman  at  home.  She  doubtless  had  found, 
as  many  housekeepers  have  before  and  since,  that 
money  should  be  conserved,  not  alone  because  of 
what  it  procures  for  people,  but  still  more  because 
of  what  it  saves  them  from.  The  proverbial  "rainy 
day,"  with  its  provident  demands,  was  therefore 
frequently  urged  upon  the  attention  of  her  open- 
handed  helpmate  without,  however,  appreciably 
modifying  his  habits  in  this  regard.  And  when  re- 
monstrance became  too  insistent,  he  replied:  "Cast 
thy  bread  upon  the  waters."  50 

That  the  lady  preferred  to  make  sure  of  bread 
upon  the  dining-room  table  is  not  surprising,  nor 
should  it  be  remembered  to  her  discredit.  Yet  a  cer- 
tain characteristic  little  scene  between  the  two  may 
not  be  omitted  here;  for,  trivial  though  it  seems,  the 
incident  throws  a  vivid  side-light  upon  this  phase  of 
Lincoln's  nature.  The  story  was  related  to  the  au- 
thor by  John  F.  Mendonsa,  now  of  Jacksonville, 
Illinois.  His  father  Antonio,  a  poor  immigrant,  after 
arriving  in  Springfield  sometimes  did  odd  jobs  for 
the  Lincolns.  As  the  older  man  could  not  speak  Eng- 
lish, he  took  the  little  son  John  with  him  to  be  his 
interpreter;  and  that  boy  never  forgot  the  many 


i86  HONEST    ABE 

kindnesses  which  he  received  from  the  master  of  the 
house.  More  than  half  a  century  has  elapsed  since 
then,  yet  among  his  most  cherished  recollections  are 
these  visits  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  home. 

Recalling  the  great  man's  manner,  Mr.  Men- 
donsa  writes:  "He  would  invariably  walk  up  to  fa- 
ther, shake  his  hand  most  cordially,  and  utter  some 
little  pleasantry  which  I  would  interpret.  This  in- 
terpretation seemed  to  amuse  him  very  much.  In 
every  way  he  was  most  considerate.  If  the  day  was 
hot,  the  maid  was  instructed  to  prepare  cooling  re- 
freshments of  some  sort,  and  vice  versa.  Knowing 
our  reduced  circumstances,  he  would  take  me  by  the 
hand,  after  father  had  been  paid,  and  place  a  quarter 
therein,  saying,  'Sonny,  take  this  to  your  mother  to 
buy  meat  for  dinner.' " 

The  narrator  goes  on  to  say :  — 

"At  one  time,  during  an  extremely  hot  summer, 
father,  my  brother-in-law,  and  I  went  to  the  woods 
for  berries.  It  was  in  July,  1856,  and  the  berry  sea- 
son was  all  but  over.  We  got  back  to  town  at  eleven 
A.M.,  having  only  three  pints.  My  brother-in-law 
had  two  quarts.  We  took  them  to  Lincoln's.  Mrs. 
Lincoln  met  us  and  asked  what  we  wanted  for  the 
berries.  Father  thought  they  should  be  worth  fif- 
teen cents  per  quart,  considering  the  scarcity  of  ber- 
ries and  the  length  of  time  consumed  —  from  four 
A.M.  until  eleven.  Mrs.  Lincoln  thought  this  price 
outrageously  high,  and  said  she  would  not  pay  more 
than  ten  cents.  Father  had  me  explain  our  long 
walk  through  the  heat,  but  she  was  inexorable. 

"We  met  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the  gate  as  we  were  leav- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        187 

ing.  He  asked  us  what  we  had  to  sell.  I  told  him, 
and  he  said,  'Does  n't  Mrs.  Lincoln  want  them?' 
'  Yes,  sir,  but  she  will  only  allow  father  ten  cents  per 
quart,  and  he  feels  they 're  worth  fifteen  cents.'  He 
patted  me  on  the  head,  smilingly  and  said,  'Sonny, 
you  tell  your  father  we'll  take  them.'  Mrs.  Lincoln 
had  joined  us,  and  on  hearing  Mr.  Lincoln's  remark, 
said,  'No,  we  won't  have  them.  I  won't  give  that 
much  for  them.'  And  when  she  was  angry,  she 
screamed  what  she  had  to  say.  Mr.  Lincoln  quietly 
said, '  Mary,  they  have  earned  all  they  ask  for  them. 
Get  me  a  pan  in  which  to  put  them.'  She  refused, 
saying,  'No,  I  won't!  I  won't  have  them!  I  don't 
want  them!'  He  then  called  to  the  maid.  She 
brought  a  pan.  He  paid  father  twenty-five  cents 
and  brother-in-law  thirty  cents.  He  chatted  awhile, 
and  as  he  bade  us  good-bye,  gave  me  a  quarter,  tell- 
ing me  to  be  a  good  boy."  51 

But  Lincoln,  like  the  skillful  tactician  that  he  was, 
usually  contrived  to  avoid  so  violent  a  clashing  of 
wills.  His  method,  on  one  occasion  at  least,  seems  to 
have  foreshadowed  the  diplomatic  triumphs  of  later 
times.  What  happened  is  related  by  the  Chevalier 
Henry  Haynie,  who  lived  in  Springfield  during  the 
old  days.  He  was  torch-bearer  to  a  volunteer  fire- 
company  which  needed  a  new  hose-cart.  Making  a 
canvass  for  subscriptions  among  the  citizens  of  the 
town,  young  Haynie  and  a  fellow  member  called 
upon  Mr.  Lincoln.  That  gentleman  at  once  ex- 
pressed his  sympathy  with  the  project,  but  thought 
it  best,  before  setting  down  any  amount,  to  consult 
"a  certain  little  woman"  about  it. 


i88  HONEST    ABE 

" I'll  do  so,  boys,"  he  continued,  "when  I  go  home 
to  supper,  —  Mrs.  Lincoln  is  always  in  a  fine,  good 
humor  then,  —  and  I  '11  say  to  her  —  over  the  toast 
— '  My  dear,  there  is  a  subscription  paper  being 
handed  round  to  raise  money  to  buy  a  new  hose- 
cart.  The  committee  called  on  me  this  afternoon, 
and  I  told  them  to  wait  until  I  consulted  my  home 
partner.  Don't  you  think  I  had  better  subscribe 
fifty  dollars?'  Then  she  will  look  up  quickly,  and 
exclaim,  'Oh,  Abraham,  Abraham!  will  you  never 
learn,  never  learn?  You  are  always  too  liberal,  too 
generous !  Fifty  dollars !  No,  indeed ;  we  can't  afford 
it.  Twenty-five's  quite  enough." 

Mr.  Lincoln  chuckled,  as  he  added: "  Bless  her  dear 
soul,  she  '11  never  find  out  how  I  got  the  better  of  her; 
and  if  she  does,  she  will  forgive  me.  Come  around 
to-morrow,  boys,  and  get  your  twenty-five  dollars." 52 

Fallible  human  nature,  viewing  this  man's  uncom- 
promising truthfulness  with  perhaps  a  trace  of  cha- 
grin, may  derive  some  consolation  from  the  thought 
that  now  and  then,  when  domestic  skies  were  over- 
cast, even  he  sought  refuge  in  equivocation.  His  sin, 
on  one  occasion  at  least,  speedily  found  him  out,  as 
he  himself  confessed  by  means  of  the  characteristic- 
ally frank  letter  which  follows :  — 

Private. 

SPRINGFIELD,  Feb.  20,  1857. 

JOHN  E.  ROSETTE,  ESQ. 

DEAR  SIR:  —  Your  note  about  the  little  para- 
graph in  the  Republican  was  received  yesterday; 
since  when,  till  now,  I  have  been  too  unwell  to  an- 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        189 

swer  it.  I  had  not  supposed  you  wrote,  or  approved 
it.  The  whole  originated  in  mistake.  You  know,  by 
the  conversation  with  me,  that  I  thought  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  paper  unfortunate;  but  I  always  ex- 
pected to  throw  no  obstacle  in  its  way,  and  to  pat- 
ronize it  to  the  extent  of  taking  and  paying  for  one 
copy.  When  the  paper  was  first  brought  to  my 
house,  my  wife  said  to  me,  '  Now,  are  you  going  to 
take  another  worthless  little  paper?'  I  said  to  her 
evasively,  I  had  not  directed  the  paper  to  be  left. 
From  this,  in  my  absence,  she  sent  the  message  to 
the  carrier.  This  is  the  whole  story. 

Yours  truly, 

A.    LINCOLN.53 

Meanwhile,  there  were  other,  far  heavier  drafts 
upon  that  meager  purse.  Its  strings  reached  all  the 
way  to  the  little  cabin  on  Goose  Nest  Prairie,  in 
Coles  County,  where,  after  repeated  migrations, 
Thomas  and  Sarah  Lincoln  had  taken  up  their  last 
abode.  The  family,  or  what  remained  of  it,  was  not 
more  prosperous  then,  we  need  hardly  add,  than  of 
yore.  In  fact,  financial  embarrassments  appear  to 
have  increased,  and  frequent  were  the  calls  upon 
Abraham  for  aid.  How  he  responded  may  be  in- 
ferred from  what  he  once  wrote  to  his  stepbrother, 
John  D.  Johnston:  "You  already  know  I  desire  that 
neither  father  nor  mother  shall  be  in  want  of  any 
comfort,  either  in  health  or  sickness,  while  they 
live."54 

A  fitting  pendant  is  furnished  by  a  letter  which 
had  been  sent  to  Thomas  Lincoln,  himself,  some 
years  previous.  It  read :  — 


190  HONEST    ABE 

WASHINGTON,  December  24,  1848. 
MY  DEAR  FATHER:  —  Your  letter  of  the  7th  was 
received  night  before  last.  I  very  cheerfully  send 
you  the  twenty  dollars,  which  sum  you  say  is  neces- 
sary to  save  your  land  from  sale.  It  is  singular  that 
you  should  have  forgotten  a  judgment  against  you; 
and  it  is  more  singular  that  the  plaintiff  should  have 
let  you  forget  it  so  long,  particularly  as  I  suppose 
you  always  had  property  enough  to  satisfy  a  judg- 
ment of  that  amount.  Before  you  pay  it,  it  would  be 
well  to  be  sure  you  have  not  paid,  or  at  least  that  you 
cannot  prove  that  you  have  paid  it.  Give  my  love  to 
mother  and  all  the  connections. 

Affectionately  your  son, 

A.   LINCOLN.55 

When  occasion  served,  moreover,  the  writer's  cus- 
tomary contributions  to  the  family  fund  were  sup- 
plemented by  the  proceeds  of  some  near-by  case. 
This  happened  in  1845,  when  he  won  a  Coles 
County  slander  suit  that  had  been  tried  at  Charles- 
ton. His  client,  in  lieu  of  fees,  assigned  thirty-five 
dollars  of  the  judgment  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  who,  instead 
of  collecting  the  money,  instructed  the  clerk  of  the 
court  to  turn  the  entire  sum,  when  it  was  received, 
over  to  his  father.  The  old  gentleman,  they  say, 
came  in  from  Goose  Nest  Prairie,  accompanied  by 
his  stepson,  to  get  the  present.  And  this  took  place 
at  a  time  when  fees  were  far  from  plentiful  with  the 
donor,  whose  total  receipts  for  a  term  of  court,  as 
one  of  his  partners  states,  did  not,  in  some  instances, 
exceed  fifty  dollars. 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        191 

More  generous  still  was  Lincoln's  course  in  the 
matter  of  two  hundred  dollars  which,  it  is  said,  his 
parents  were  sorely  in  need  of.  Having  paid  over  the 
money,  he  determined  to  make  sure  that  at  least 
part  of  the  property  held  by  them  should  not  slip 
through  their  fingers.  To  this  end,  forty  acres  of  the 
home  place  were  deeded  to  him  by  Thomas  and 
Sarah,  with  a  reservation  to  the  effect  that  the  old 
folks  should  have  "entire  control  of  said  tract .  .  . 
during  both  and  each  of  their  natural  lives."  56  This 
was  doubtless  done,  in  the  main,  for  the  protection  of 
his  dearly  beloved  stepmother.  To  give  her  money 
or  to  supply  her  with  comforts  failed,  as  he  thought, 
to  balance  the  long  account  of  affectionate  service 
which  stood  between  them.  He  went  further,  and 
secured  her  this  piece  of  property  at  his  expense  for 
as  long  as  she  lived:  secured  it,  indeed,  against  her 
own  fond  forgetfulness  of  self.  For  no  sooner  had 
Thomas  Lincoln  died  than  Sarah's  own  son,  the 
good-natured,  idle,  happy-go-lucky  John,  tried  to 
sell  the  place,  and  only  Abraham's  firmness  in  main- 
taining his  rights  as  the  owner  kept  the  land  under 
the  old  lady's  feet.  Still  there  was  no  ill-will  between 
the  brothers.  When  Johnston,  who  appears  to  have 
been  perpetually  impecunious,  appealed  for  assist- 
ance on  his  own  account,  Lincoln  usually  responded 
with  the  desired  funds.  And  once,  when  for  obvious 
reasons  the  money  was  not  forthcoming,  a  generous 
proposition  accompanied  the  kindly  refusal.57  This 
warm-hearted  man,  then,  meeting  the  claims  of  the 
old  home  as  well  as  of  the  new,  smoothing  out  from 
year  to  year  a  coil  of  debts,  and  indulging  his  fancy, 


1Q2  HONEST    ABE 

at  the  same  time,  for  occasional  little  acts  of  benevo- 
lence, might  surely  have  used  a  much  larger  income 
to  advantage. 

Yet  apparently  none  of  these  demands  upon  Lin- 
coln's resources  quickened  in  him,  to  the  least  de- 
gree, any  tendency  toward  cupidity.  Even  certain 
notable  ventures  on  the  uncertain  seas  of  politics, 
that  brought  up  now  and  then,  as  we  shall  learn, 
financial  straits,  failed  to  disturb  his  perfect  poise 
with  regard  to  money  matters.  Nor  did  he  attempt 
to  better  the  range  of  his  professional  opportunities, 
and  when  Judge  Grant  Goodrich,  one  of  the  lead- 
ing Chicago  lawyers,  offered  him  a  partnership  in  a 
highly  lucrative  practice,  Lincoln  declined  the  flat- 
tering proposal.  He  preferred  his  life  on  the  circuit, 
with  its  freedom  and  smaller  fees,  to  the  grind  of  a 
wealth-producing  hopper  in  that  rapidly  expanding 
city.  As  a  result  of  all  this  Lincoln  naturally  failed 
to  attain  a  competency.  After  more  than  twenty 
years  of  active  practice  at  the  bar,  during  which 
his  services  were  eagerly  sought  for  in  the  Federal 
Courts,  as  well  as  throughout  the  Eighth  Judicial 
Circuit;  after  a  record  of  labors  unsurpassed,  if  in- 
deed it  was  equaled,  by  any  of  his  contemporaries 
who  attended  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court,  the  high- 
est appellate  tribunal  in  the  State;  after  enjoying 
a  standing  that  brought  him  important  cases  to  be 
tried  in  distant  places,  and  retainers  to  appear  be- 
fore the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  —  this  pow- 
erful advocate,  successful  in  every  respect  but  one, 
closed  his  legal  career  a  poor  man.  The  circum- 
stance once  led  Judge  Davis  to  remark: "  I  question 


DOLLARS    AND    CENTS        193 

whether  there  was  a  lawyer  in  the  circuit  who  had 
been  at  the  bar  as  long  a  time  whose  means  were  not 
larger." 

How  much  Lincoln  might,  then,  be  considered  ac- 
tually worth,  as  the  phrase  goes,  has  been  variously 
estimated.  It  is  safe  to  say,  however,  that  his  estate 
consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of  his  home  with  its  con- 
tents at  Springfield,  a  tract  of  land  comprising  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  in  Crawford  County,  Iowa, 
granted  by  the  United  States  Government  for  mili- 
tary service  during  the  Black  Hawk  War,  and  a  lot 
in  the  new  town  of  Lincoln.58  If  there  were  other 
similar  possessions  of  importance,  they  must  have 
escaped  notice,  and  ready  money  was  evidently  far 
from  plentiful.  Mr.  Lincoln,  himself ,  rated  his  net 
assets,  it  is  said,  low  enough.  While  in  New  York, 
during  the  month  of  February,  1860,  he  met,  so  the 
story  goes,  one  of  his  former  Illinois  friends,  who, 
when  questioned  as  to  how  the  fickle  goddess  had 
treated  him,  replied  that  she  had  only  yielded  up 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

"Is  n't  that  enough?"  asked  Lincoln.  "I  should 
call  myself  a  rich  man  if  I  had  that  much.  I  've  got 
my  house  at  Springfield  and  about  three  thousand 
dollars." 

Somewhat  larger  amounts  figure  in  other  versions 
of  this  interview,  but  at  best  the  total  sum  must 
have  been  comparatively  small.59  Indeed,  such  scat- 
tering indications  as  can  now  be  collected  all  warrant 
the  inference  that  a  banker's  balance-sheet,  struck 
in  those  days  between  Mr.  Lincoln's  debits  and  cred- 
its, would  have  disclosed  no  very  sizable  net  surplus. 


194  HONEST    ABE 

But  there  is  another  system  of  accounting  which 
results  in  quite  a  different  showing.  It  deals  not 
with  dollars  and  cents,  nor  with  real  estate,  nor  se- 
curities; yet  until  this  method  too  has  been  applied, 
no  such  appraisement  can  be  deemed  complete.  Its 
values  are  expressed  in  terms  of  honor,  its  profits  are 
to  be  found  in  the  hearts  of  the  people;  and  by  this 
reckoning,  Abraham  Lincoln's  career  at  the  bar  was 
a  brilliant  success.  He  may,  it  is  true,  have  had  less 
property  to  show  for  all  these  years  of  toil  than  any 
of  his  colleagues;  still,  not  one  of  them  was  so  rich  in 
the  love  and  confidence  of  the  entire  region.  The  old 
circuit  —  judges,  lawyers,  and  laymen  —  united  to 
award  him  a  prize  that  money  cannot  buy.  They 
sent  him  out  laden  with  the  fine  gold  of  a  spotless 
reputation.  They  introduced  him  to  the  nation  as 
their  ideal  of  a  true  man,  at  a  time  when  the  true 
man  was  sorely  needed;  at  a  time  when  any  but  a 
true  man  placed  where  he  was  placed  must  have 
gone  down  in  defeat  with  perhaps  as  great  a  cause  as 
has  ever  been  committed  to  a  single  champion ;  and 
to  this  day,  his  name  remains  a  synonym  throughout 
the  land  for  honest  dealing. 


CHAPTER  V 

HONESTY   IN.  POLITICS 

SIDE  by  side  with  Lincoln's  life  at  the  bar  ran  a 
different  yet  kindred  career  —  that  of  the  politi- 
cian. These  twin  pursuits  claimed  him  at  almost  the 
outset,  as  they  claim  so  many  men  who  enter  upon 
the  law.  But  in  his  case  the  customary  order  was 
reversed,  for  he  had  been  elected  to  public  office 
before  he  became  a  lawyer. 

Early  during  the  spring  of  1832,  while  still  a  clerk 
in  Denton  Offutt's  grocery  store  at  New  Salem,  Lin- 
coln announced  himself  to  be  an  aspirant  for  elec- 
toral honors.  How  this  came  about  is  not  without 
interest.  According  to  his  own  explanation,  offered 
in  a  little  speech  made  at  the  time,  he  had  been  "so- 
licited by  many  friends"  1  to  become  a  candidate  for 
the  State  Legislature.  The  phrase  doubtless  passed 
more  nearly  at  its  face  value  on  that  occasion  than  is 
usual  with  such  euphemisms  of  the  stump.  For  in 
very  truth,  this  young  man  —  newcomer  though  he 
was,  and  but  just  past  his  twenty-third  birthday  — 
had  won  the  good  will  of  the  people  about  him  to 
a  remarkable  degree.  Sunning  themselves  in  the 
charm  of  his  kindly  nature,  laughing  at  his  jokes  and 
applauding  his  feats  of  physical  strength,  admiring 
the  scanty  learning  which  he  employed  with  so  much 
common  sense,  and  confiding,  above  everything,  in 
an  integrity  that  had  already  been  subjected,  as  we 


196  HONEST    ABE 

have  seen,  to  numerous  little  tests,  the  voters  of  New 
Salem  might  well  have  "solicited"  Lincoln  to  enter 
the  political  field.  They  had  known  him,  it  is  true, 
less  than  nine  months,  but  may  not  that  brief  period 
have  teemed  with  as  many  experiences  as  ordinarily 
fill  the  corresponding  number  of  years  in  more  con- 
servative communities?  For  time  seems  measured 
by  heartbeats,  so  to  say,  rather  than  by  hours,  when 
it  is  quickened  with  the  stress  and  strain  of  life  on 
a  Western  frontier.  Under  the  primitive  conditions 
that  prevail  there,  elemental  qualities  push  to  the 
front,  men  stand  revealed  for  what  they  really  are, 
and  true  leadership  comes  speedily  into  its  own.  So 
the  smiling  young  clerk,  whose  tall,  angular  form 
towered  above  Offutt's  counter,  impressed  himself 
upon  his  customers  as  a  suitable  person  to  be  en- 
trusted with  the  not  too  onerous  duties  of  represent- 
ing them  in  the  General  Assembly.  They  had  seen 
enough  of  him  to  believe  that  those  ungainly  lines 
overlay  a  group  of  faculties  which  might  be  relied  on 
for  effective  political  service;  and,  what  was  infin- 
itely more  important,  they  felt  assured  that  when- 
ever these  faculties  were  exerted,  they  would  move 
in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  honor. 

Honor,  in  the  fine,  exalted  sense  of  the  term, 
however,  hardly  entered  at  this  time  into  the  cal- 
culations of  the  New  Salem  constituents.  No  far- 
reaching  moral  principle,  apparently  claimed  their 
attention,  and  such  interests  as  they  had  in  that 
particular  election  itself  were  commonplace  enough. 
The  voters  desired  a  member  who  could  be  trusted 
to  look  loyally,  with  unsoiled  hands,  after  their  ma- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      197 

terial  needs  at  the  State  Capital.  They  wanted  good 
faith  there,  rather  than  high  ideals.  The  candidate 
—  not  less  practical,  for  that  matter,  and  a  politi- 
cian true  to  type  in  the  making  —  wanted  an  office. 
To  say  that  he  entered  upon  this  initial  canvass 
with  any  exceptionally  lofty  programme,  is  to  anti- 
cipate the  full-orbed  halo  of  later  days,  at  a  period 
when  only  the  first  faint  prophetic  glow  might,  per- 
haps, now  and  then  have  been  discernible.  In  sober 
truth,  as  Lincoln  frankly  explained,  "Offutt's  busi- 
ness was  failing  —  had  almost  failed."  2  It  would 
soon  become  necessary  to  find  a  new  job,  and  the 
pay  of  a  Representative,  though  limited  to  day's 
wages  for  short  terms,  with  mileage,  looked  suffi- 
ciently inviting.  Moreover,  this  call  from  "among 
his  immediate  neighbors,"  *  to  quote  him  again, 
touched  perhaps  the -most  vulnerable  point  in  Abe's 
character  —  his  personal  ambition.  The  "last  in- 
firmity of  noble  mind"  may  sometimes  also  be  the 
first.  From  Lincoln's  earliest  youth  the  passion  to 
surpass  others  had  dominated  him  at  every  turn. 
Pitting  his  strength,  whether  of  mind  or  body, 
against  that  of  his  associates,  he  had  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity of  excelling  them,  until  it  seemed  almost  sec- 
ond nature  for  this  homely  mixture  of  modesty  and 
self-assertion,  of  good  humor  and  mastery,  to  be- 
come the  central  figure  in  every  group  through  which 
he  moved.  So  confirmed  grew  these  habits  of  lead- 
ership that  as  Lincoln  reached  manhood  the  craving 
for  distinction,  the  aspiration  to  be  big  where  once  he 
had  been  little,  must  have  entered  into  the  very  core 
of  his  being.  It  was  not  overstating  the  case,  accord- 


198  HONEST    ABE 

ingly,  for  him  to  tell  his  "fellow-citizens,"  in  a 
printed  address  issued  at  the  beginning  of  this  can- 
vass: "Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambi- 
tion. Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one, 
that  I  have  no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly 
esteemed  of  my  fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself 
worthy  of  their  esteem."  3 

These  phrases,  stripped  of  their  conventional 
wrappings,  really  meant  that  the  writer  had  set  his 
heart,  above  all  things,  upon  popularity. 

The  very  intensity  of  such  an  aspiration  must 
have  put  him  severely  to  the  test.  How  far  he  went 
in  gratifying  it,  and  to  what  extent,  if  any,  inconven- 
ient moral  scruples  were  allowed  to  impede  his  eager 
progress,  are  pertinent  questions.  Was  he,  in  other 
words,  under  the  absolute  sway  of  the  master  pas- 
sion, as  so  many  eager  souls  have  been,  or  did  an 
alert  conscience  at  crucial  points  apply  the  control- 
ling brake?  Conclusive  answers  to  these  queries  can, 
we  are  aware,  be  given  only  after  a  survey  of  the 
man's  entire  career;  yet  back  there,  almost  at  the 
beginning  of  things,  on  the  threshold,  so  to  say,  of 
his  public  life,  one  group  of  circumstances  dimly 
prefigured,  in  a  way,  the  whole  story. 

When  Lincoln  essayed  this  first  short  flight  into 
politics,  Democratic  men  and  measures  were  su- 
preme on  well-nigh  every  hand.  The  reign  of  An- 
drew Jackson  was  at  its  height.  Under  his  imperious 
leadership  —  he  had  just  completed  three  years  in 
the  White  House — "radical  doctrines,"  so-called, 
commanded  ever-increasing  support;  while  his  own 
magnetic  personality  attracted  many  followers  who 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      199 

were  as  ardent  in  their  support  of  him  as  they  grew 
intolerant  of  those  who  opposed  him.  No  predeces- 
sor had  carried  the  rewarding  of  friends  and  the  pun- 
ishing of  enemies  to  such  an  extreme.  Partisanship 
was  in  the  saddle.  Proscription  became  the  order  of 
the  day.  Taking  their  cue  from  the  despotic  decrees 
issued,  time  and  again  at  Washington,  the  "whole- 
hog  Jackson  men,"  as  the  most  zealous  among  the 
President's  adherents  were  not  inaptly  called,  sta- 
tioned themselves  across  the  highways  to  prefer- 
ment and  crushed  out  the  political  lives  of  candidates 
who  failed  to  respond  with  the  familiar  shibboleths 
of  the  party.4  When  methods  so  coercive  are  pursued 
by  a  powerfully  intrenched  majority,  place-hunters 
in  great  numbers  throng  to  its  standard.  Their  huz- 
zas may  be  heard  above  the  voices  of  the  faithful, 
and  patronage,  rather  than  political  creed,  directs  — 
if  indeed  it  does  not  control  —  the  devious  opera- 
tions of  partisan  machinery.  Such  was  the  scene 
that  presented  itself  to  the  young  Lincoln's  anxious 
eyes,  as  he  looked  over  this  new,  this  untried  field  for 
a  point  of  vantage  from  which  a  beginner  might  try 
his  wings. 

Nor  was  the  prospect  nearer  home  essentially  dif- 
ferent. There,  too,  the  uncompromising  Democracy 
that  swayed  so  much  of  the  country  at  large  seemed 
all  powerful.  Illinois,  in  fact,  was  counted  by  this 
potent  majority  among  its  rock-ribbed  strongholds, 
and  though  factional  differences,  from  time  to  time, 
disturbed  local  harmony,  the  journalist  who  de- 
scribed "Jacksonism"  as  dominating  that  State 
with  "the  strength  of  Gibraltar," 5  hardly  overdrew 


200  HONEST    ABE 

the  picture.  Sangamon  County,  it  is  true,  contained 
a  considerable  number  who  did  not  favor  the  Presi- 
dent, yet  even  there  his  majorities  were  decisive.  So, 
all  in  all,  an  ambitious  tyro,  making  a  maiden  appeal 
to  the  voters  of  that  district  from  the  obscure  little 
village  of  New  Salem,  had  every  incentive,  appar- 
ently, for  enrolling  himself  in  the  ranks  of  these 
triumphant  Democrats. 

Such  a  course  would  not  have  run  counter  one 
whit  to  Lincoln's  early  sympathies.  His  father,  we 
are  told,  was  a  Democrat,  or  a  Democratic  Republi- 
can, to  use  the  older  designation;  his  own  youthful 
associations  had  been  largely  with  people  of  the  same 
stripe;  and,  like  many  other  lads  of  the  period,  he 
regarded  the  picturesque  chieftain  of  the  party  with 
a  personal  admiration  which  neither  time  nor  po- 
litical changes  wholly  effaced.6  But  as  Abraham 
reached  manhood,  a  greater  statesman  —  greater 
in  not  a  few  requisites  of  leadership  —  had  at- 
tracted his  favor;  and  he  found  himself,  ere  long, 
at  one  with  those  who  were  enlisted  under  the  ban- 
ner of  Henry  Clay. 

That  eminent  campaigner's  personality  capti- 
vated the  younger  man's  imagination.  It  presented 
a  magnet  to  which  the  true  metal  in  Lincoln's  nature 
could  not  but  respond.  There  were  elements,  more- 
over, in  "gallant  Harry's"  character,  no  less  than 
in  his  achievements  so  far  as  they  had  then  been 
unfolded,  that  compelled  profound  respect.  Clay's 
early  poverty,  of  which  no  sordid  traces  were  percep- 
tible in  a  singularly  winning  presence,  his  breadth  of 
human  sympathy  and  largeness  of  vision,  a  chival- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      201 

rous  manner  that  accorded  well  with  an  ardently 
sanguine  temperament,  his  unswerving  integrity  with 
regard  to  pecuniary  matters,  the  lofty  standard  that 
he  had  set  himself  for  the  practice  of  his  profession 
as  a  lawyer,  his  equally  lofty  standards  of  public 
duty,  —  then  still  unshaken  by  the  shifts  of  a  be- 
guiling ambition,  —  the  splendid  courage,  not  to  say 
genius,  with  which  he  rose  to  the  demands  of  great 
political  occasions,  a  generous  patriotism  that  in- 
spired him  to  carry  peace-winning  concessions  across 
the  barriers  raised  by  conflicting  parties,  his  steadily 
expanding  record  which  at  every  turn,  whether  in 
the  Kentucky  Legislature,  the  United  States  Senate, 
the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Speaker's  chair, 
the  diplomatic  service,  or  the  President's  Cabinet, 
had  thus  far  been  marked  by  the  elan  and  dash  of  a 
brilliant  intellect,  an  eloquence  that  baffled  descrip- 
tion, yet  left  his  audiences  for  the  rest  of  their  days 
under  the  spell  of  its  witchery,  —  all  this  and  more 
had  brought  Lincoln  to  a  point  well-nigh  bordering 
upon  hero-worship. 

Naturally,  so  strong  a  preference  for  "the  Great 
Commoner"  himself  extended,  in  a  way,  to  his  pub- 
lic policies.  Clay's  political  programme,  comprising 
by  that  time  three  notable  issues,  —  tlf  e  demands 
for  a  federal  bank,  a  high  protective  tariff,  and  a 
continental  scheme  of  internal  improvements,  — 
may  also  be  said  to  have  left  its  impress  upon  Lin- 
coln's mind.  He  was  not  deeply  concerned,  it  is 
true,  during  those  callow  days,  with  national  ques- 
tions ;  yet  so  far  as  he  held  any  views  on  such  mat- 
ters, they  favored  "Clay's  American  System"  and 


202  HONEST    ABE 

the  principles  generally  of  the  National  Republican 
Party. 

So  it  happened  that  when  Lincoln  came  to  make 
his  first  political  campaign,  he  enlisted  on  the 
weaker  side.  "An  avowed  Clay  man,"  to  quote  the 
candidate  himself,  he  declared  for  a  leader  who,  with 
all  his  attainments,  had  already  been  severely  routed 
in  a  contest  for  the  Presidency,  and  what  is  more, 
who  was  destined  to  encounter  still  further  disasters 
of  the  same  nature.  Yet  no  heroics,  no  fine  flourish 
of  trumpets,  so  far  as  is  known,  accompanied  this 
decision.  A  poor,  obscure  young  man,  in  need  of  an 
office  and  eager  for  distinction,  was  merely  following 
his  convictions  rather  than  his  apparent  interests  by 
enrolling  himself  under  colors  doomed  to  repeated 
reverses,  and  in  opposition  to  the  most  ruthlessly 
intolerant  majority  that  the  political  processes  of 
the  country  had  thus  far  evolved.  The  result  must 
have  been  a  foregone  conclusion.  Lincoln's  canvass 
came  to  grief.  Commenting  on  the  episode,  twenty- 
eight  years  later,  in  that  brief  autobiography  written 
as  the  basis  for  a  "campaign  life,"  he  said:  "This 
was  the  only  time  Abraham  was  ever  beaten  on  a 
direct  vote  of  the  people."  7 

And  even  that  beating  looks  now,  in  certain  re- 
spects, more  like  a  victory  than  a  defeat.  Lincoln  did 
not,  it  is  conceded,  prevail  at  the  polls;  but  in  one  of 
those  astonishing  reversals  whereby  the  X-ray  of 
history  sometimes  reveals  material  failure  to  be  spir- 
itual success,  this  experience  should  rank  among  his 
greatest  triumphs. 

There  was  another  reason,  less  obscure  at  the 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      203 

moment,  for  not  regarding  the  campaign  as  wholly 
disastrous.  It  established  Lincoln's  claim  to  polit- 
ical consideration  by  a  remarkable  circumstance. 
Although  he  failed  to  receive  the  requisite  number 
of  votes  throughout  the  county,  —  standing  eighth 
on  the  list  of  thirteen  candidates  who  ran,  —  his  own 
neighbors  in  the  precinct  which  contained  New 
Salem  gave  him  277  marks  out  of  the  entire  290 
recorded  for  Representatives.8  The  full  significance 
of  these  figures  can  be  appreciated  only  after  it  is 
added  that  the  same  citizens,  a  few  weeks  later,  cast 
115  more  votes  for  General  Jackson's  Presidential 
electors  than  they  gave  to  Mr.  Clay's;9  and  further, 
that  this  well-nigh  unanimous  support  of  their 
youthful  townsman,  without  regard  to  his  politics, 
was  bestowed  during  a  period  noted  in  our  annals 
for  its  intensely  bitter  partisanship.  Explaining  the 
phenomenon,  many  years  thereafter,  another  prom- 
ising young  politician  of  those  days,  wrote:  "  The 
Democrats  of  New  Salem  worked  for  Lincoln  out  of 
their  personal  regard  for  him.  That  was  the  general 
understanding  of  the  matter  here  at  the  time.  In 
this  he  made  no  concession  of  principle  whatever. 
He  was  as  stiff  as  a  man  could  be  in  his  Whig  doc- 
trines. They  did  this  for  him  simply  because  he  was 
popular  —  because  he  was  Lincoln."  10 

Because  —  the  writer  might  have  continued  — 
they  had  weighed  and  measured  Offutt's  clerk,  while 
he  was  weighing  and  measuring  commodities  behind 
the  grocery-store  counter;  because  —  what  is  still 
more  to  the  purpose  —  both  sets  of  accounts,  how- 
ever dissimilar  they  must  have  seemed  in  the  mak- 


204  HONEST    ABE 

ing,  tallied  peculiarly  with  each  other  in  the  final 
reckoning.  And  when,  with  almost  one  accord,  the 
Democrats  among  these  people  who  knew  the  candi- 
date best  threw  party  obligations  aside  to  register 
their  approval  of  him  at  the  polls,  they  placed  on 
record  the  first  notable  judgment  passed  by  the  vot- 
ing public  upon  his  character.  Favorable  verdicts 
without  number  have  been  passed  upon  politicians, 
great  and  small.  Merely  national  reputations  are 
as  common  among  them  as  printer's  ink  is  pur- 
chasable. But  one  must  search  well  through  our 
whole  list  of  eminent  statesmen  to  find  the  few 
who  achieved,  at  any  time  in  their  careers,  what 
Lincoln  started  with  —  an  almost  perfect  reputa- 
tion at  home. 

Nor  was  this  big  local  vote  the  only  expression  of 
confidence  in  the  "avowed  Clay  man"  manifested 
by  Jacksonians  during  those  militant  days.  Before 
another  summer  arrived,  he  had  received  an  appoint- 
ment from  "Old  Hickory"  himself,  as  the  reader 
will  remember,  to  the  postmastership  at  New  Salem ; 
and  soon  thereafter,  John  Calhoun,  the  surveyor  for 
Sangamon  County,  an  ardent  local  Administration 
leader,  made  him,  it  may  also  be  recalled,  one  of  his 
deputies.  That  these  politicians  —  high  and  low  — 
should  so  far  forego  the  fruits  of  the  spoils  system, 
looks  creditable  not  only  to  the  object  of  their  lenity, 
but  to  themselves  as  well.  Still,  in  the  case  of  the 
President,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  much  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  act  which  bestowed  upon  this 
obscure  appointee  an  equally  obscure  office. 

The  place  could  hardly  have  been  of  less  conse- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      205 

quence.  How  insignificant  it  really  was  can  be  ap- 
preciated only  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  a  far  from 
regular  mail  service,  scheduled  for  twice  a  week,  suf- 
ficed to  meet  the  needs  of  this  sparsely  settled  dis- 
trict; and  that  even  then  the  high  rate  of  postage, 
not  to  mention  the  low  rate  of  scholarship,  kept  the 
business  transacted  there  within  meager  bounds. 
Indeed,  tradition  goes  so  far  as  to  picture  Lincoln 
carrying  the  office,  for  the  most  part,  "in  his  hat." 
Under  its  ample  crown  letters  or  papers  addressed  to 
outlying  settlers  are  said  to  have  been  snugly  tucked 
away  until  opportunities  came  for  making  deliver- 
ies —  rural  free  deliveries,  we  should  call  them  to- 
day —  at  people's  doors.11  This  conscientious  youn^ 
postmaster  may  therefore  be  credited  with  having 
anticipated  by  more  than  sixty  years  a  now  highly 
esteemed  branch  of  the  postal  service.  Nor  did  his 
usefulness  cease  there.  If  the  recipient  of  a  letter 
was,  as  not  infrequently  happened,  illiterate,  Abe's 
ability  to  read  and  write  was  promptly  called  into 
play.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  our  postman  brought  a 
newspaper,  he  usually  came  prepared  to  discuss  its 
contents.  For  the  privilege  of  reading  before  deliv- 
ering all  printed  matter  that  passed  through  his 
hands  appears  to  have  been  a  cherished  perquisite  of 
the  office.  Lincoln  certainly  made  the  most  of  it. 
Too  poor  to  subscribe  himself  for  the  various  "or- 
gans" which  professed  to  reflect,  inform,  and  guide 
public  opinion,  he  read  with  avidity  such  of  them  as 
appeared  in  the  New  Salem  mails.  This  practice 
laid  the  foundation,  so  to  say,  of  his  political  educa- 
tion. Indeed,  what  he  was  taught  by  these  sheets 


206  HONEST    ABE 

during  the  three  years  in  which  he  held  the  post 
constituted  perhaps  Lincoln's  most  valued  returns 
from  an  otherwise  poorly  paid  occupation.12 

The  office  of  deputy  surveyor  for  Sangamon 
County,  on  the  other  hand,  was  more  lucrative  and 
of  far  greater  importance :  so  much  so,  in  fact,  that 
Lincoln  hesitated  to  accept  it  at  the  hands  of  an  offi- 
cial whose  politics  were  of  the  opposite  stripe.  True, 
he  needed  a  job,  just  then,  with  a  good  day's  pay 
attached,  if  any  man  ever  did ;  but  "  man  "  —  that  is 
to  say  this  kind  of  man  —  "doth  not  live  by  bread 
alone,"  nor  is  he  content  to  live  in  pursuit  of  bread 
alone,  when  to  do  so  brings  his  sincerity  into  ques- 
tion. Lincoln's  first  impulse  had  been  to  decline 
Calhoun's  offer.  It  came  through  a  common  friend, 
Pollard  Simmons,  who,  at  the  surveyor's  request, 
had  hastened  from  Springfield  to  New  Salem  with 
a  tender  of  the  appointment.  Elated  over  what  he 
regarded  as  Lincoln's  good  fortune,  Simmons  —  so 
the  story  goes  —  sought  him  out  in  the  woods,  where 
he  was  splitting  rails,  and  told  the  glad  news.  It  did 
not  meet  with  the  reception  that  the  messenger  had 
anticipated.  So,  sitting  down  together  upon  a  log, 
they  discussed  the  proposition  from  their  conflicting 
points  of  view.  To  Abe's  mind,  after  a  momentary 
flush  of  pleased  surprise,  two  drawbacks  presented 
themselves.  He  had  no  knowledge  of  surveying,  and 
he  would  not  tamper  with  his  political  principles  to 
secure  a  berth  however  soft.  The  one  obstacle  a  lit- 
tle study  might,  of  course,  remove.  But  how  about 
the  other?  So  they  talked  it  all  over  until  Lincoln 
finally  said :  "  If  I  can  be  perfectly  free  in  my  political 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      207 

action,  I  will  take  the  office;  but  if  my  sentiments,  or 
even  expression  of  them,  is  to  be  abridged  in  any 
way,  I  would  not  have  it  or  any  other  office." 13 

When  the  speaker  presented  himself,  a  few  days 
later,  before  the  surveyor  in  Springfield,  all  of  his 
objections  were,  as  we  have  seen,  brushed  aside. 
Calhoun  needed  an  able  man  of  unquestioned  integ- 
rity —  needed  him  more,  at  that  particular  time, 
than  the  Democratic  Party  needed  recruits.  How  he 
assisted  Lincoln  to  master  the  rudiments  of  survey- 
ing, and  how  fully  he  guaranteed  him  his  political 
independence,  have  already  been  told.  To  what  a 
remarkable  degree,  moreover,  this  strangely  chosen 
deputy  justified  the  other's  confidence  has  also  been 
pointed  out.  It  only  remains  to  be  said  that,  though 
most  of  the  incidents  which  flecked  John  Calhoun's 
eventful  career  have  been  forgotten,  he  still  abides 
in  our  memories  as  the  politician  who,  when  seeking 
a  trustworthy  assistant,  could  see  through  the  mists 
of  partisan  prejudice  clearly  enough  to  appraise 
Abraham  Lincoln,  thus  early,  at  his  true  worth. 

The  holding  of  these  two  places  under  the  Jack- 
sonian  regime  had  no  ill-effects  —  interesting  to  re- 
late —  upon  the  young  "  Clay  man's  "  standing.  His 
political  sincerity  apparently  remained  unques- 
tioned. What  was  more,  the  good  account  that  he 
gave  of  himself  as  a  public  servant,  and  the  enlarged 
opportunities  offered  by  those  offices,  —  each  in 
its  own  way,  —  contributed  not  a  little  toward  the 
growth  of  an  ever-increasing  popularity.  It  is  hardly 
surprising,  therefore,  to  find  him  at  the  next  elec- 
tion, in  the  summer  of  1834,  making  another,  and 


208  HONEST    ABE 

that  time  successful,  canvass  for  the  State  Legisla- 
ture. The  list  of  candidates  was  as  long  as  it  had 
been  two  years  before.  Yet  of  the  four  who  were 
now  elected,  Lincoln,  running  but  fourteen  votes 
behind  the  leader,  received  the  second  highest 
number  cast.14 

For  this  splendid  victory  he  was  again  largely  in- 
debted to  Democratic  favor.  In  fact,  prominent 
members  of  the  opposing  party  had  gone  so  far  as 
to  offer  him  their  formal  endorsement,  —  an  honor 
which,  after  some  hesitation  and  several  anxious  con- 
sultations with  his  colleagues  on  the  ticket,  Lin- 
coln had  accepted.  There  is  no  reason  to  infer  that 
in  so  doing  he  had  taken  any  unfair  advantage  of 
them,  as  has  been  suggested,  or  that  his  political 
principles  had  undergone  any  trimming  whatsoever 
in  the  acquisition  of  this  alien  support.  How  it  came 
about  is  obvious  enough.  The  same  confidence  and 
good  will  which  New  Salem,  regardless  of  party,  had 
manifested  toward  him  to  so  notable  an  extent  at  the 
preceding  election,  should  merely  be  credited  with 
having  spread,  during  the  intervening  two  years, 
though  in  a  lesser  degree,  perhaps,  through  Sanga- 
mon  County.  That  section,  moreover,  so  far  as  local 
politics  went,  was  giving  a  gracious  hearing  at  the 
time  to  new  ideas  and  new  leaders.  Under  the  influ- 
ence of  certain  able  young  tacticians  with  whom  Lin- 
coln had  become  associated,  Jacksonism  itself  grew 
less  rampant  in  the  county.  There,  as  elsewhere,  the 
swift  alchemy  of  popular  enthusiasm  was  at  work, 
fusing  hitherto  unrelated  elements  into  a  novel  polit- 
ical unit,  and  by  a  coalition  of  Clay's  followers  with 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      209 

other  anti-Jackson  factions,  helping  to  form  a  great 
national  fellowship  —  the  American  Whig  Party. 
It  was  as  an  exponent  of  this  vigorous  though  un- 
tried organization  that  the  Representative-elect 
from  New  Salem  took  his  seat  in  the  Ninth  General 
Assembly. 

Those  must  have  been  strenuous  days.  The  Whigs 
were  in  a  minority;  yet  they  began,  from  the  fall  of 
the  gavel,  to  exert  an  influence  upon  legislation  out 
of  all  proportion  to  their  numbers.  This  required 
skillful  team- play,  and  the  leaders  were  doubtless 
wary  of  employing  novices.  At  any  rate,  no  impor- 
tant part  on  the  programme,  so  far  as  now  appears, 
was  entrusted  to  Lincoln.  His  appointment  to  the 
Committee  on  Public  Accounts  and  Expenditures 
seems  appropriate  enough,  in  view  of  the  sobriquet 
with  which  he  had  entered  the  House;  but  the  trans- 
actions of  that  committee  afforded  him  slender  scope, 
if  the  record  may  be  followed,  for  displaying  finan- 
cial honesty  or,  in  fact,  honesty  of  any  sort.  Nor 
was  he  more  active  during  this  first  session  in  general 
legislation.  Several  bills  of  no  great  moment,  service 
on  a  few  select  committees,  occasional  routine  mo- 
tions, the  presentation  of  an  unsuccessful  petition, 
and  a  resolution  concerning  monies  received  from 
the  sales  of  public  lands  apparently  made  up  the  sum 
of  his  doings  on  the  floor.  For  the  rest,  as  behooved 
a  fledgling,  he  kept  modestly  in  the  background.  By 
the  time  this  Legislature  reassembled,  however,  at 
the  special  session  of  1835-36,  Lincoln's  downright 
sincerity,  his  homely  common  sense,  and  a  certain 
capacity  for  parliamentary  work  began  to  dawn 


210  HONEST    ABE 

upon  his  colleagues.  He  attracted  favorable  notice 
too,  some  say,  by  the  zeal  with  which  he  labored, 
when  the  legislative  districts  were  reapportioned 
that  winter,  toward  securing  for  Sangamon  a  con- 
siderable increase  of  representation.  Under  the  law 
then  passed,  his  county,  though  not  the  most  popu- 
lous in  the  State,  was  awarded  the  heaviest  member- 
ship in  the  House  of  Representatives.  So  that  its 
delegation  to  the  General  Assembly  became  enlarged 
from  four  members  in  the  House  and  two  in  the  Sen- 
ate to  seven  in  the  House  and  two  in  the  Senate  — 
changes  which  were  destined  to  exert  a  memorable 
influence  upon  the  political  history  of  Illinois  as  well 
as  upon  the  fortunes  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

His  popularity  among  the  people  had  meanwhile 
suffered  no  diminution.  They  liked  him,  trusted  him, 
and  now  some  of  them  felt  grateful  toward  him.  It 
was  to  a  pleased  constituency,  therefore,  from  more 
than  one  point  of  view,  that  he  appealed  during 
the  following  summer  for  reelection.  The  contest  ap- 
pears to  have  been  warmly  waged  on  every  side,  and 
though  the  enlarged  list  of  candidates  included  sev- 
eral doughty  campaigners,  —  Democrats  as  well  as 
Whigs,  —  Lincoln  regained  his  seat  with  the  highest 
vote  given  by  Sangamon  to  any  nominee  for  the 
House  of  Representatives.  What  is  more,  the  entire 
legislative  ticket  of  the  new  party  in  that  district 
was  elected.  The  Whigs,  by  a  signal  victory,  had 
revolutionized  the  neighborhood ;  and  so  complete — 
we  may  add  in  passing  —  was  their  triumph  through- 
out the  county  that  the  control  which  they  then 
gained  over  its  affairs  could  at  no  time,  during  sev- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      211 

eral  succeeding  decades  of  Democratic  ascendancy 
elsewhere  in  the  State,  be  successfully  disputed  there. 
Clean  sweeps  presuppose  stalwart  brooms.  The 
newly  elected  Sangamon  Representatives,  together 
with  the  Senators  who  held  over,  did  in  fact  make  a 
notable  group  of  men.  They  were  as  tall  as  they 
were  vigorous.  Their  average  weight  is  said  to  have 
exceeded  two  hundred  pounds,  and  their  average 
height  six  feet.  When  they  appeared  at  Vandalia 
for  the  session  of  1836-37,  some  wag  dubbed  them 
the  "Long  Nine"  —  an  appellation  that  stuck.  For 
even  in  the  capital  of  a  State  dedicated,  as  the  In- 
dian tradition  has  it,  to  "superior  men,"  their  ap- 
pearance no  less  than  their  achievements  attracted 
attention.  The  stature,  moreover,  which  one  of  these 
tall  politicians  eventually  attained  in  the  world's  his- 
tory lends  peculiar  interest  to  the  whole  coterie.  On 
that  account,  if  on  no  other,  a  chronicle  of  his  doings 
would  seem  incomplete  without  the  names  of  those 
eight  colleagues.  They  comprised,  in  the  House, 
John  Dawson,  Ninian'W.  Edwards,  Robert  L.  Wil- 
son, Daniel  Stone,  William  F.  Elkin,  and  Andrew 
McCormick;  in  the  Senate,  Archer  G.  Herndon  and 
Job  Fletcher,  Sr.  These  men,  fresh  from  the  exalta- 
tion of  a  thoroughgoing  party  victory,  took  their 
seats  in  the  Legislature  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
accomplishing  great  things.  And  they  had  need 
of  all  their  courage.  The  particular  task  which 
awaited  them  was  no  easy  one.  They  were  expected 
to  capture  the  State  Capital  for  Sangamon  County 
by  having  the  seat  of  government  transferred  from 
Vandalia  to  Springfield. 


212  HONEST    ABE 

The  management  of  this  enterprise  was  entrusted 
to  Lincoln.  He  had  then  already  evinced  some  of  the 
qualities  that  go  to  make  a  political  leader,  and  his 
associates  in  the  "  Long  Nine,"  as  if  by  common  con- 
sent, looked  to  him  for  guidance.  But  the  honor  was 
apparently  not  welcome  just  then.  Suffering  from 
illness  and  from  one  of  those  attacks  of  morbid  de- 
pression that  at  times  possessed  him,  he  entered 
upon  the  session,  unlike  the  others,  in  no  conquering 
mood.  Nevertheless,  under  his  direction  the  San- 
gamon  delegation  straightway  began  a  spirited  cam- 
paign to  the  greater  glory  of  Springfield.  That  town 
was  not  by  any  means  the  favorite  among  some  half- 
dozen  places  which  actively  aspired  to  the  capital 
prize.15  Yet  so  vigorously  were  its  claims  put  forth 
that  competitors  came  to  regard  it  as  their  most  for- 
midable rival,  and  for  a  time  the  contest  looked  as  if 
all  the  other  municipalities  in  the  field  were  com- 
bined against  this  one. 

The  odds  bore  heavily  against  the  "Long  Nine" 
—  so  heavily  that  some  of  the  big  men,  at  critical 
points  in  the  unequal,  at  times  well-nigh  futile, 
struggle,  lost  heart.  But  their  leader  did  not  flinch. 
What  might  have  dismayed  more  seasoned  parlia- 
mentary chieftains  merely  stimulated  Lincoln  to 
renewed  efforts.  He  seemed  prepared  to  stake  the 
entire  session,  if  necessary,  upon  the  success  of  the 
Springfield  project.  That  measure  was,  in  fact, 
thrown  into  the  scales  whenever  the  advocates  of 
pending  legislation  sought  Sangamon  support. 

And  such  calls  came  frequently  enough,  because 
well-nigh  every  member  of  this  remarkable  Assem- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS     213 

bly  had  his  own  particular  interest  to  serve.  It  took 
the  form,  generally  speaking,  of  some  scheme  for 
so-called  "internal  improvements,"  whereby  the 
politicians  tried  to  satisfy  a  mania  for  overnight 
development  that  had  recently  obsessed  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  State — a  mania  which  was  now  about 
to  reach  its  culmination  in  a  series  of  extravagant 
enactments.  One  eager  statesman  came  charged  by 
his  constituents  with  the  duty  of  securing  a  railroad; 
another  must  obtain  an  appropriation  for  a  canal, 
another  a  State  road;  still  another  was  under  orders 
to  have  this  stream  or  that  made  more  widely  navi- 
gable; and  so  on  through  the  whole  range  of  pub- 
lic betterments.  A  hungrier  crowd  of  the  people's 
chosen  Representatives  has  seldom  been  seen  to 
clamor  around  the  "pork  barrel."  It  seemed  as  if 
each  man's  political  life  depended  upon  securing  and 
carrying  home  a  generous  helping.  To  that  end, 
other  interests  were  freely  sacrificed,  while  "log-roll- 
ing," as  the  expressive  idiom  for  the  trading  of  votes 
sometimes  phrased  it,  became  the  order  of  the  day. 
Few  if  any  among  these  struggling  legislators  ap- 
pear to  have  marketed  their  influence  more  profit- 
ably than  did  the  members  from  Sangamon  County; 
and  the  most  able  "log-roller"  in  even  that  profi- 
cient band  is  said,  beyond  a  question,  to  have  been 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Maneuvering  his  followers  so 
as  to  take  advantage  of  every  turn,  arraying  their 
united  strength  solidly  for  or  against  the  designs 
of  other  delegations,  as  those  delegations  declared 
themselves  during  the  preliminary  skirmishes  to  be 
allies  or  opponents  of  Springfield,  winning  over  some 


214  HONEST    ABE 

members  by  appeals  to  personal  interests,  others  by 
appeal  to  sheer  good-fellowship,  —  adroit,  tireless, 
unruffled,  —  Lincoln  at  last  surmounted  all  obsta- 
cles, and  brought  this  unique  campaign  to  a  trium- 
phant finish.  The  "Long  Nine"  won.  Springfield 
carried  the  day,  and  by  a  joint  vote  of  both  houses, 
in  the  closing  days  of  the  session,  that  town  became 
their  choice  for  the  permanent  capital  of  Illinois. 

Great  was  the  rejoicing  throughout  the  Sangamon 
region  over  this  achievement.  And  no  less  elated  — 
need  we  add? — were  the  citizens  of  the  little  prairie 
burg  so  suddenly  raised  to  prominence.  They  wel- 
comed the  returning  delegation  as  they  might  have 
welcomed  a  band  of  conquering  heroes.  Nothing 
was  too  good  in  Springfield  for  the  men  who  had 
brought  it  this  coveted  civic  honor.  Members  of  the 
"Long  Nine"  were  fe"ted  and  lauded  on  every  hand, 
while  their  leader  particularly  came  in  for  grateful 
attentions.  At  one  complimentary  dinner  sixty 
guests  are  said  to  have  joined  in  the  toast:  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln :  He  has  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  his 
friends  and  disappointed  the  hopes  of  his  enemies."16 

But  "his  enemies,"  or,  more  correctly  speaking, 
the  enemies  of  Springfield,  were  still,  in  a  way,  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Some  of  them  took  their  defeat 
hard.  They  affected  to  believe,  if  they  did  not  indeed 
actually  believe,  that  the  Sangamon  interest  had 
won  unfairly.  In  fact,  above  the  notes  of  triumph 
with  which  the  victors  celebrated  their  joyful  home- 
coming might  be  heard  the  discordant  voices  of  these 
chagrined  opponents,  charging  trickery  and  corrup- 
tion. 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      215 

The  brunt  of  such  assaults  naturally  fell  upon  Lin- 
coln. He  it  was  who  had  guided  the  activities  of  the 
"Long  Nine,"  and  against  him  were  now  directed 
the  severest  blows  of  their  assailants.  Yet  the  San- 
gamon  chief,  by  all  accounts,  proved  equal  to  the 
occasion.  Whenever  his  conduct  or  that  of  his  col- 
leagues in  the  contest  for  the  Capital  was  publicly 
attacked,  he  is  said  to  have  replied  with  telling 
effect  —  so  much  so,  in  truth,  that  before  long  all 
detractors  were  silenced,  efforts  to  repeal  the  act 
failed,  and  the  Springfield  forces,  rejoicing  in  Lin- 
coln's prowess,  remained  undisputed  masters  of  the 
situation.17  They  applauded  without  stint,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  the  man  to  whom  this  was 
mainly  due ;  but  their  enthusiastic  approval  of  him 
is  not  by  any  means  the  last  word. 

His  course  throughout  the  affair  can  hardly  be 
deemed  creditable  in  every  particular.  The  trading 
of  votes  between  lawmakers  may  be  defensible, 
perhaps,  under  certain  rare,  not  to  say  peculiar, 
circumstances.  Still,  as  such  transactions  are  usu- 
ally conducted,  the  practice  calls  for  condemnation. 
And  when  a  group  of  Representatives,  like  the 
"Long  Nine,"  go  so  far  as  to  traffic  through  an  en- 
tire session  in  one  concerted  effort  to  secure  the  pass- 
age of  a  bill  for  the  special  benefit  of  their  constitu- 
ents, the  proceeding  becomes  grossly  reprehensible. 
In  this  bargain  and  sale  of  legislation,  the  extrava- 
gant expenditure  of  public  money  is  not  by  any 
means  the  most  pernicious  feature.  Among  men  so 
engaged,  votes  speak  louder  than  conscience,  —  yes, 
louder,  on  occasion,  than  all  the  Ten  Command- 


216  HONEST    ABE 

ments  taken  together.  For  your  true  "log-rollers" 
are  prone  —  if  we  may  paraphrase  the  words  of  a 
famous  statesman  —  to  consider  themselves  in  poli- 
tics, not  in  ethics.  Their  first  few  lapses  from  correct 
parliamentary  principles  open  the  way  too  often  for 
further  and  still  further  deviations,  until  the  stand- 
ards of  nearly  a  whole  legislature  seem  warped  out 
of  their  accustomed  grooves ;  an  indefinable  laxness 
creeps  into  actions  which  have  no  concern  what- 
ever with  these  "log-rolling"  measures,  and  the 
let-down  in  moral  tone,  brought  about  by  repeated 
departures  from  the  loftier  plane  of  disinterested 
lawmaking,  hardly  stops  short,  at  times,  of  general 
demoralization.  To  what  extent  this  actually  hap- 
pened in  the  Tenth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois  is 
not  now  definitely  known.  But  prevailing  conditions 
there  were  manifestly  far  from  ideal;  and  as  some 
of  the  fault,  at  least,  was  chargeable  to  the  "Long 
Nine,"  he  who  stood  at  their  head  must  take  his 
share  of  the  blame. 

In  fairness  to  Lincoln,  however,  it  should  be  said 
—  for  what  such  a  plea  is  worth  —  that  any  idea 
of  wrongdoing  probably  never  entered  the  young 
man's  mind.  He  and  his  colleagues  had  merely  pur- 
sued tactics  tolerated,  if  indeed  they  were  not  sanc- 
tioned, by  the  customs  of  the  period.  During  those 
raw  pioneer  days,  not  a  few  politicians  looked  upon 
votes  as  legitimate  objects  of  barter;  and  to  so  fla- 
grant an  extreme,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  their 
views  carried  in  the  Illinois  Legislature  of  1836-37, 
that  the  Assembly  became  a  veritable  market-place. 
Amidst  this  whirl  of  chaffering  the  member  from 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      217 

New  Salem  was  seen  to  move  with  steady  tread. 
True,  he  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  poor  business 
man  at  home;  yet  here  his  faculty  for  one  peculiar 
kind  of  commerce  apparently  fell  little  short  of 
genius.  So  it  turned  out  that  when  the  last  trade 
was  made,  when  the  deals  had  all  been  closed,  and 
Speaker  Semple's  gavel  sounded  for  final  settle- 
ments, the  big  winning  was  disclosed  —  as  we  have 
seen  —  in  Lincoln's  grasp.  Then  it  was  that  his 
defeated  antagonists  set  up  those  cries  of  outraged 
virtue.  Then  only  did  they  discover  the  depths  of 
moral  turpitude  into  which  he  had  fallen.  But  their 
censure  came  with  painfully  diminished  effect  from 
men  who  had  themselves  employed,  though  unsuc- 
cessfully, the  very  methods  for  which  they  now  con- 
demned him;  and  one  is  curious  to  know  by  what 
system  of  ethical  adjustments  they  thought  to  recon- 
cile their  own  acts  with  these  tardy  expressions  of 
principle.  In  any  event,  the  accusers  may  be  said 
to  have  come  into  court,  as  the  phrase  goes,  with 
unclean  hands  —  at  least,  with  hands  no  cleaner 
than  those  of  the  associate  whom  they  denounced. 
Indeed,  when  all  is  said,  the  head  and  front  of  his 
offending,  as  far  as  these  angry  politicians  were  con- 
cerned, will  be  found  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  he  had 
beaten  the  gentlemen  at  their  own  game. 

Here  again  let  the  chronicle  do  justice  to  Lincoln. 
He  had  indeed  played  this  game  —  if  game  it  may 
be  called  —  for  all  that  was  in  him,  but  he  certainly 
had  not  evinced  the  reckless  disregard  of  public  in- 
terests that  the  fault-finding  losers  tried  to  lay  at 
his  door.  On  the  contrary,  he  believed  himself  to 


218  HONEST    ABE 

have  been  serving  the  whole  State,  no  less  than 
Springfield,  with  every  trade  whereby  the  "Long 
Nine,"  in  exchange  for  what  they  wanted,  lent  their 
votes  and  their  influence,  as  has  just  been  narrated, 
to  establish  a  comprehensive,  if  lavish,  system  of 
"internal  improvements."  Such  undertakings  had, 
in  fact,  engaged  Lincoln's  imagination  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  public  life.  Pledged  to  them,  in  a 
sense,  and  convinced  of  their  value,  he  aimed  at 
associating  himself  in  the  West,  as  other  politicians 
had  done  elsewhere  through  the  country,  with  some 
splendid  scheme  for  public  development.  It  was  dur- 
ing this  period  that  Lincoln,  emulating  the  exam- 
ple of  the  man  to  whom  the  Empire  State  was 
chiefly  indebted  for  its  Erie  Canal,  confided  to  his 
friend  Joshua  F.  Speed  an  ambition  to  make  himself 
"the  De  Witt  Clinton  of  Illinois."  18  The  aspira- 
tion looks  futile  enough  now  in  the  light  of  what 
ensued.  Still,  at  that  time  all  observers,  with  rare 
exceptions,  confidently  expected  to  see  this  single 
Legislature,  by  passing  a  series  of  Utopian  enact- 
ments, swing  the  young  prairie  Commonwealth 
into  a  millennium  of  prosperity;  while  the  politi- 
cians, regardless  of  party,  outvied  one  another  in  do- 
ing the  people's  bidding.  Demands  for  these  won- 
der-working measures  were  heard  on  every  side.  An 
influential  lobby  invaded  the  capital  to  urge  their 
adoption.  Petitions  poured  in  upon  the  members. 
Their  newspapers  from  home  came  full  of  buoyant 
—  not  to  say  flamboyant  —  articles  advising  liberal 
action.  Mass  meetings  and  conventions,  voicing  the 
general  infatuation  with  sonorous  resolutions,  went 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      219 

so  far  as  to  issue  parliamentary  orders  to  their 
Representatives.  In  fact,  the  Sangamon  delegation 
itself  had  been  instructed  by  citizens  of  the  county 
assembled  at  such  a  gathering  to  give  the  much- 
discussed  "system"  unqualified  support.  Obviously, 
therefore,  when  Lincoln  exchanged  improvement 
votes  for  Springfield  votes,  he  put  a  price  upon  aid 
which  would  finally  have  been  given,  in  any  event. 
Circumstances  merely  enabled  him,  as  he  doubtless 
thought,  to  serve  his  constituents,  indeed  the  whole 
State,  by  what  he  gave  no  less  than  by  what  he  re- 
ceived. And  if  his  tactics  deftly  took  toll  of  legis- 
lation going,  so  to  say,  as  well  as  coming,  the  proc- 
ess was,  in  its  political  aspect,  at  least,  consistent 
enough.  From  all  of  which,  those  who  cannot  bear 
to  contemplate  a  good  man  overstepping  the  narrow 
path  ever  so  little  will  derive  such  comfort  as  they 
may;  while  others  who  seem  inclined  to  insist  upon 
a  hero,  immaculate  no  less  than  great,  must  bring 
themselves  to  realize  that  the  best  of  men  are  some- 
times —  particularly  during  their  formative  years 
—  seen  to  walk  in  the  shadows. 

This  one  cloud,  moreover,  on  Lincoln's  early  polit- 
ical record  was  not  without  the  proverbial  silver 
lining.  "Honest  Abe's"  better  self  still  held  sway. 
Indeed,  ideals  of  public  service  as  he  then  conceived 
them  were  never  quite  lost  sight  of,  even  amidst  the 
temptations  incident  to  a  fiercely  waged  parliamen- 
tary campaign.  His  fault  began  and  ended  with  the 
trading  of  votes.  Beyond  that,  neither  the  low-lev- 
eled practices  which  prevailed  on  every  hand,  nor  the 
pressure  of  colleagues,  eager  to  triumph  at  any  cost, 


220  HONEST    ABE 

could  carry  him.  The  Machiavellian  doctrine  that 
victory  brings  glory,  whatever  the  method  of  achiev- 
ing it,  evidently  formed  no  part  of  the  creed  which 
directed  his  "log-rolling"  ambitions.  And, ardently 
as  he  longed  to  win  the  day  for  Springfield,  no  ques- 
tionable proposals,  however  alluring,  were  allowed 
to  blunt  in  any  further  degree  his  fine  sense  of  moral 
values. 

A  notable  instance,  aptly  illustrating  this,  oc- 
curred when  the  struggle  over  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  at  its  height.  An  effort  had  been  made  to 
combine  the  friends  of  removal  with  those  who  were 
laboring  for  a  certain  measure  of  dubious  character. 
What  that  measure  entailed  is  not  now  definitely 
known,  but  Lincoln  regarded  it  with  strong  disap- 
proval. He  had  so  expressed  himself  and  the  negoti- 
ations languished.  At  last,  a  number  of  Represen- 
tatives, who  were  severally  interested  on  both  sides 
of  the  projected  deal,  met  to  discuss  it  in  a  private 
caucus.  Their  deliberations  lasted,  we  are  told, 
nearly  all  night ;  yet  as  the  Sangamon  leader  refused 
to  forego  his  objections,  they  finally  adjourned  with- 
out having  reached  the  desired  agreement.  It  takes 
more  than  one  such  repulse,  however,  to  discourage 
politicians.  Another  conference  was  presently  ar- 
ranged, and,  as  if  to  make  sure  that  sufficient  pres- 
sure would  be  exerted  upon  the  recalcitrant  member, 
a  number  of  prominent  citizens,  not  in  the  Legis- 
lature but  anxious  for  Springfield's  success,  were 
craftily  invited  to  attend.  An  earnest  discussion 
ensued.  Those  who  favored  the  compact  employed 
every  argument  that  they  could  frame  in  its  behalf. 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      221 

Some  of  the  speakers,  deploring  Lincoln's  inconven- 
ient scruples,  begged  him  to  lay  them  aside,  join  his 
friends,  and  make  sure  of  the  capital  for  Sangamon 
County,  but  without  avail.  Finally,  after  midnight, 
when  the  candles  were  burning  low  and  the  talk  had 
well-nigh  run  its  course,  he  arose  to  close  the  debate. 
What  Lincoln  said  has  not  been  preserved  entire, 
but  an  admirer,  who  described  the  speech  as  "one 
of  the  most  eloquent  and  powerful "  to  which  he  had 
ever  listened,  has  handed  down  these  concluding 
words:  "You  may  burn  my  body  to  ashes  and  scat- 
ter them  to  the  winds  of  heaven ;  you  may  drag  my 
soul  down  to  the  regions  of  darkness  and  despair  to 
be  tormented  forever;  but  you  will  never  get  me  to 
support  a  measure  which  I  believe  to  be  wrong, 
although  by  doing  so  I  may  accomplish  that  which 
I  believe  to  be  right."  19 

How  much  provocation  the  speaker  had  for  this 
burst  of  perfervid  oratory  cannot  now  be  deter- 
mined, yet  whatever  one  may  say  about  his  rhetoric, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  concerning  his  good  faith. 
That  meeting  adjourned,  as  its  predecessor  had  done, 
without  taking  the  questionable  step  so  warmly  ad- 
vocated by  most  of  the  persons  present ;  and  one  of 
the  participants,  at  least,  must  be  credited  with  hav- 
ing made  clear  that  even  a  "log-roller"  may  set  con- 
scientious bounds  to  the  scope  of  his  operations. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  occasion  on  which  Lincoln 
vetoed  the  unseemly  devices  to  which  some  of  his  too 
eager  partisans  would  have  resorted.  They  had  ac- 
cepted willingly  enough,  while  the  contest  for  the 
capital  lasted,  such  conditions  as  were  imposed  by 


222  HONEST    ABE 

the  general  act  upon  whatever  place  might  become 
the  seat  of  government.  But  after  the  victory  went 
to  Sangamon,  these  conditions  did  not  appear  quite 
so  attractive.  One  of  them,  in  fact,  gave  the  Spring- 
field people  some  uneasiness.  This  was  a  clause 
which  required  the  successful  community  to  raise 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  by  private  subscriptions,  in 
order  that  a  corresponding  amount,  appropriated 
under  the  act  for  the  erection  of  needful  public 
buildings,  might  be  refunded  to  the  State.  What 
looks  like  a  small  sum  now,  must  have  loomed  large 
in  those  days  on  the  financial  horizon  of  a  strug- 
gling little  frontier  town.  And  its  task  of  collecting 
the  required  donations,  difficult  under  normal  con- 
ditions, became  doubly  so  during  the  hard  times 
which  were  ushered  in  this  same  year  by  the  historic 
panic  of  1837. 

The  situation  seemed  to  call  for  relief  of  some 
kind.  •  So  a  way  out  suggested  itself  to  an  ambitious 
young  politician  who  had  recently  taken  up  his  resi- 
dence in  Springfield.  This  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
the  newly  elected  Register  of  the  Land  Office.  His 
scheme,  prefiguring  many  adroit  political  shifts  to 
come,  had  the  characteristic  merit  of  being  at  once 
simple  and  efficacious.  It  proposed,  in  a  word,  repu- 
diation. By  means  of  an  innocent  little  legislative 
amendment,  deftly  applied,  Springfield  was  to  step 
out  from  under  this  burden  and  let  the  cost  slip  back 
to  its  original  place,  on  the  shoulders  of  the  State. 
But  Lincoln  again  barred  the  way. 

"We  have  the  benefit,"  said  he.  "Let  us  stand  to 
our  obligation  like  men."  20 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      223 

And  so  they  did.  Yet  money  for  the  first  two  pay- 
ments —  there  were  to  be  three  in  all  —  was  scraped 
together  with  some  difficulty;  and  worse  still,  when 
the  third  installment  came  due,  no  funds  whatever 
seemed  collectible.  Many  of  the  subscribers  had  be- 
come impoverished,  while  none  of  them  were  flush. 
So  the  required  sum,  $16,666.67,  was  borrowed  from 
the  State  Bank  of  Illinois  on  a  note  that  bore  the 
signatures  of  one  hundred  and  one  citizens.  They 
took  eight  years  to  discharge  the  debt.  How  hard 
it  came  for  some  of  them  to  meet  their  share,  what 
economies  were  practiced,  what  sacrifices  made, 
can,  in  the  nature  of  things,  never  be  known.  The 
episode  itself,  stripped  of  all  these  romantic  de- 
tails, —  a  simple  tale  of  plain  good  faith,  —  must 
suffice  for  history.  And  it  does  suffice.  For  now, 
after  more  than  two  thirds  of  a  century  has  elapsed, 
that  painfully  liquidated  note  is  still  extant.  Framed 
.and  displayed  in  a  banking-house  at  Springfield, 
where  all  who  enter  may  see,  it  serves  as  a  memorial 
to  the  rectitude  of  the  community  during  those  try- 
ing times. 

They  were  trying  times,  indeed,  and  to  none  of 
these  one  hundred  and  one  signers  more  so,  perhaps, 
than  to  him  who  had  written  the  name,  "A.  Lin- 
coln." When  he  came  to  the  recently  chosen  capital, 
as  we  have  seen,  shortly  after  adjournment  of  the 
General  Assembly,  to  seek  his  fortunes  at  the  bar, 
this  young  politician's  financial  condition  was,  in  a 
sense,  worse  than  penniless.  The  burden  of  "the 
national  debt"  lay  upon  him,  and  the  few  dollars  in 
his  pocket  did  not  suffice  —  the  reader  will  recall 


224  HONEST    ABE 

—  to  supply  his  most  pressing  wants.    How  those 
wants  were  met,  first  by  a  seat  at  Butler's  table,  then 
by  a  place  in  Speed's  bed,  may  also  be  recalled.    And 
possibly  it  is  as  well  to  add  —  for  all  these  circum- 
stances are  of  peculiar  significance  now  —  even  the 
horse  which  carried  him,  a  few  weeks  later,  on  his 
first  trip  around  the  circuit  was  borrowed  from  a 
colleague,  Robert  L.  Wilson,  of  the  "Long  Nine." 
That  a  man  who  had  been  one  of  the  leading  actors 
in  an  orgy  of  extravagant  legislation  should  emerge 
from  the  session  so  impoverished  as  to  be  dependent 
momentarily  upon  the  hospitality  of  one  friend  for 
food,  of  another  for  shelter,  and  of  still  another  for 
the  means  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  is  its  own  commen- 
tary on  his  probity.   Nor  does  this  appear  less  note- 
worthy, in  the  light  of  a  commonly  accepted  belief 
that  the  "internal  improvement"  measures  were 
tainted  with  personal  corruption.   The  whirl  of  en- 
ticing opportunities  during  those  rapid  days  is  said 
to  have  swept  more  than  one  legislator  off  his  feet. 
Yet  the  Sangamon  chief  stood  steadfast.    He  could 
see  nothing  attractive  in  the  illicit,  or  at  least  dubi- 
ous, gains  which  were  garnered  by  perverting  official 
duties  to  selfish  ends.    In  fact,  then  and  thereafter 

—  during  that  sinister  period,  as  well  as  throughout 
his  entire  four  consecutive  terms  in  the  Illinois 
House  —  Lincoln's  record,  so  far  as  such  matters 
went,   was  spotless.    Like  certain  other  political 
leaders  to  whom  private  fortunes  have  been  lacking, 
he  followed  the  rule  laid  down  in  one  of  Daniel 
Webster's  aphorisms:  "The  man  who  enters  pub- 
lic life  takes  upon  himself  a  vow  of  poverty,  to  the 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      225 

religious  observance  of  which  he  is  bound  so  long 
as  he  remains  in  it." 

There  was,  however,  nothing  ascetic,  we  hasten  to 
add,  about  "the  godlike"  Daniel's  life  —  public  or 
private.  Improvident  and  debt-ridden,  he  indulged 
himself,  to  the  point  of  reckless  extravagance,  in  a 
mode  of  living  beside  which  the  Illinoisan's  simple 
habits  formed  a  striking  contrast.  They  were  both 
poor,  it  is  true,  but  from  very  different  causes.  What 
some  of  these  were,  in  Lincoln's  case,  the  stories 
recounting  his  hapless  business  ventures  and  his 
unprofitable  methods  at  the  bar  have  already  dis- 
closed. For  the  rest,  an  engrossing  interest  in  poli- 
tics with  its  resultant  sacrifices,  as  the  years  went  on, 
of  time,  attention,  even  money,  hardly  served  to  im- 
prove the  situation.  One  is  prepared,  therefore,  to 
learn  that  when  funds  ran  low  he  too  made  shift  to 
eke  out  his  resources  by  applying  the  familiar  math- 
ematical formula,  —  three  from  two  we  cannot  take 
so  I  borrow. 

Lincoln's  very  entrance  into  public  life  had  been 
made,  it  must  be  confessed,  through  the  drab  doors 
of  debt.  After  his  first  election  to  the  Legislature, 
while  still  at  New  Salem,  he  was  confronted  by  a  per- 
plexing question.  How  could  a  countryman,  wholly 
without  means,  acquire  presentable  clothes,  travel  all 
the  way  down  to  the  seat  of  government  at  Vandalia, 
and  maintain  himself  there  until  pay-day  in  a  man- 
ner befitting  the  dignity  of  a  lawmaker?  This  partic- 
ular countryman  was  not  long  contriving  the  answer. 
Calling  on  Coleman  Smoot,  a  prosperous  farmer  in 
the  district,  he  asked :  "Smoot,  did  you  vote  for  me?  " 


226  HONEST    ABE 

The  answer  was  a  prompt  affirmative. 

"Well,"  said  Lincoln,  "you  must  loan  me  money 
to  buy  suitable  clothing,  for  I  want  to  make  a  decent 
appearance  in  the  Legislature." 

Here  was  a  whimsical  reversal  of  the  course  that 
funds  too  often  take  in  passing  between  candidate 
and  voter.  But  Smoot,  who  had  a  warm  admiration 
for  the  new  member,  entered  cordially  into  the 
humor  of  the  affair.  He  handed  out  two  'hundred 
dollars — enough  it  would  seem  to  meet  all  of  Lin- 
coln's prospective  expenses;  and  these  two  hundred 
dollars — we  have  the  lender's  own  statement  for  the 
fact  —  were  some  time  thereafter  repaid,  "accord- 
ing to  promise."  21 

The  same  amount  of  money,  taking  the  same  un- 
accustomed direction,  figured  in  another  peculiar 
election  episode.  On  the  latter  occasion,  however, 
a  contribution  was  made  to  further  the  office-seek- 
er's election,  rather  than  to  help  him  out  afterwards. 
And  this  is  how  it  happened.  During  a  vigorously 
contested  canvass,  the  Whigs  raised  a  purse  of  two 
hundred  dollars  which  Joshua  F.  Speed  handed  Lin- 
coln to  defray  his  expenses.  When  the  election  was 
over,  the  victorious  candidate  brought  back  one 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  dollars  and  twenty-five 
cents.  Giving  this  to  his  friend,  with  a  request  that 
it  be  distributed  again  among  the  subscribers,  he 
said :  "  I  did  not  need  the  money.  I  made  the  canvass 
on  my  own  horse.  My  entertainment,  being  at  the 
houses  of  friends,  cost  me  nothing ;  and  my  only  out- 
lay was  seventy-five  cents  for  a  barrel  of  cider,  which 
some  farmhands  insisted  I  should  treat  them  to."22 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      227 

Lincoln's  failure  to  find  a  use  for  these  funds  was 
in  keeping  with  the  simple  honesty  which  prompted 
their  return.  Yet  throughout  this  very  period  he 
must  have  been  harried,  not  only  by  his  old  business 
debts,  but  also  by  the  several  successors  to  the  Smoot 
loan  that  his  necessities,  from  time  to  time,  brought 
into  being.  Nor  were  such  accommodations  always 
from  friends.  We  catch  a  glimpse,  early  in  1839,  of 
a  maturing  note  at  the  bank  that  had  to  be  renewed, 
and  the  interest  charges  on  which  had  to  be  paid.23 
Indeed,  many  years  were  destined  to  elapse  before 
Lincoln  could  wholly  free  himself  from  the  meshes 
of  these  carking  obligations.  They  held  him  mean- 
while fast-bound  among  the  debtor  class,  and  what 
he  endured,  intensifying  a  natural  tenderness  for 
all  unfortunates,  stirred  his  sympathies  to  their 
very  depths  in  behalf  of  other  men  who  might  be 
similarly  circumstanced. 

The  situation,  however,  called  for  more  than  mere 
sympa'thy.  Victims  of  exorbitant  interest  charges 
were  to  be  met  with,  during  the  first  third  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  on  every  hand,  in  Illinois. 
There,  as  elsewhere,  capital  when  staked  against  the 
hazards  of  pioneer  ventures  exacted  heavy  tolls. 
Banks  and  "moneyed  institutions,"  so-called,  were 
restricted,  it  is  true,  by  an  act  passed  in  1819,  to  re- 
turns not  exceeding  six  per  cent;  but  under  that 
same  law  other  investors  expressly  had  leave  to  make 
contracts  without  any  limitations  upon  the  extent 
of  their  charges,  and  for  the  most  part  —  needless 
to  say — they  took  advantage  of  the  privilege.  Rates 
running  all  the  way  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to 


228  HONEST    ABE 

three  hundred  per  cent  were  not  uncommon  in  the 
placing  of  loans,  while  the  customary  figures  hov- 
ered about  fifty  per  cent.  The  oppression  and  suffer- 
ing which  these  burdens  entailed  gave  rise  to  clam- 
orous demands  for  relief.  Yet  the  way  out  seemed 
far  from  plain.  How  borrowers  could  be  protected 
against  ruin  due  to  extortion,  without  being  plunged 
as  hopelessly  into  disaster  through  ill-advised  leg- 
islation which,  by  discouraging  lenders,  might  cut 
off  all  supplies,  was  the  form  which  the  problem 
took. 

It  appears  to  have  been  presented  from  many 
angles  during  the  canvass  of  1832 ;  and  Lincoln,  as  a 
raw  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  had  taken  a  hand, 
even  then,  in  the  solution.  What  he  proposed  was 
thus  set  forth  among  the  postulates  of  that  first  for- 
mal political  document,  his  "Address  to  the  People 
of  Sangamon  County  " :  — 

"It  seems  as  though  we  are  never  to  have  an  end 
to  this  baneful  and  corroding  system,  acting  almost 
as  prejudicially  to  the  general  interests  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  direct  tax  of  several  thousand  dollars 
annually  laid  on  each  county  for  the  benefit  of  a  few 
individuals  only,  unless  there  be  a  law  made  fixing 
the  limits  of  usury.  A  law  for  this  purpose,  I  am  of 
opinion,  may  be  made  without  materially  injuring 
any  class  of  people.  In  cases  of  extreme  necessity, 
there  could  always  be  means  found  to  cheat  the  law ; 
while  in  all  other  cases  it  would  have  its  intended 
effect.  I  would  favor  the  passage  of  a  law  on  this 
subject  which  might  not  be  very  easily  evaded.  Let 
it  be  such  that  the  labor  and  difficulty  of  evading 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      229 

it  could  only  be  justified  in  cases  of  greatest  ne- 
cessity." 24 

A  singular  programme,  truly,  yet  what  could  one 
expect,  in  those  times  of  loose  financiering,  from  an 
embryo  prairie  politician  just  pipping  his  shell? 
Older  heads  —  in  fact,  seasoned  lawmakers  and 
economists  without  number,  from  the  very  beginning 
of  commercial  history  down  to  the  present  day  — 
hardly  make  a  better  showing  when  it  comes  to 
devising  how  this  "tooth  of  usury,"  as  an  eminent 
Lord  Chancellor  once  said,  may  "be  grinded  that 
it  bite  not  too  much."  Lincoln's  naive  plea  that 
means  could  be  found,  when  necessary,  "to  cheat 
the  law,  while  in  all  other  cases  it  would  have  its 
intended  effect,"  reveals  a  certain  uneasy  sense  of 
the  fatal  weakness  running  through  all  such  legisla- 
tion. And  one  is  at  a  loss  what  to  marvel  over  most, 
—  the  candor  with  which  he  admits  this  defect,  or 
the  childlike  disregard  of  public  ethics  involved  in 
his  awkward  attempt  to  meet  the  difficulty  by  sug- 
gesting occasional  violations  of  the  statute. 

That  subterfuge  reminds  us  of  a  story,  as  Abe  him- 
self* used  to  say,  —  one  of  his  own,  in  fact.  He  told 
it,  not  long  afterwards,  on  the  stump,  at  the  expense 
of  an  opponent  who  gave  equivocal  answers  to  some 
searching  questions.  This  man,  Lincoln  said,  was 
like  a  hunter  he  had  once  known.  Boasting  of  his 
marksmanship  on  a  certain  occasion,  and  telling  how 
he  brought  down  an  animal  during  the  season  when 
a  calf  might  easily  be  mistaken  for  a  deer,  the  fellow 
concluded  his  recital  with  the  fine  flourish :  "  I  shot  at 
it  so  as  to  hit  it  if  it  was  a  deer,  and  miss  it  if  a  calf." 


230  HONEST    ABE 

What  might  pass  for  a  hit-or-miss  bill,  limiting 
the  rate  of  interest  to  not  more  than  twelve  per  cent, 
became  a  law  during  the  following  winter.  But  as 
Lincoln  had  failed  of  election  to  the  Legislature 
which  enacted  this  statute,  none  of  its  shortcomings 
can  fairly  be  laid,  except  in  a  remote  sense,  at  his 
door.  Such  was  not  the  case,  however,  with  several 
important  financial  measures  adopted  by  the  suc- 
ceeding sessions  that  he  did  attend.  We  have  seen 
how  he  plunged  into  the  excesses  which  grew  out  of 
the ' '  internal  improvement "  craze,  and  though  many 
fellow-members  of  both  parties  are  also  charge- 
able with  what  took  place,  few  if  any  of  them  were 
more  active  than  he  in  shaping  the  course  of  this 
hapless  legislation.  It  was  under  his  leadership  that 
the  "Long  Nine"  exerted  their  very  considerable 
influence,  as  has  been  told,  to  put  the  so-called  "sys- 
tem" through.  And  a  merry  dance  they  had,  with- 
out too  much  thought  concerning  who  should  pay 
the  fiddler.  Soberer  men,  trying  here  or  there  in 
small  numbers  to  block  the  way,  were  swept  aside. 
An  infatuated  Assembly,  hardly  stopping  to  count 
the  cost,  voted  appropriations  for  public  works 
aggregating  over  ten  millions  of  dollars ; 25  and  inter- 
est-bearing securities  were  authorized  to  an  amount 
not  exceeding  eleven  millions.  Of  this  sum,  eight 
millions  were  to  be  borrowed  for  the  works,  two  mil- 
lions for  the  State  Bank  of  Illinois,  and  one  million 
for  the  Bank  of  Illinois  at  Shawneetown.  These  two 
institutions  became  the  fiscal  agents  of  the  State, 
with  a  proviso  that  their  net  earnings  should  be  ap- 
plied to  the  payment  of  interest,  as  it  accrued,  on 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      231 

"improvement"  bonds.  Nothing  could  have  been 
simpler  and  —  less  dependable.  The  debt  so  created 
—  at  least  such  part  of  it  as  found  a  market  —  was 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  young  State's  proper 
credit  or  resources.  Consequently,  when  financial 
ruin  swept  over  the  continent  in  the  spring  of  1837, 
not  many  Commonwealths  were,  relatively  speak- 
ing, more  deeply  involved  than  Illinois. 

To  meet  what  looked  like  an  impending  crisis, 
Governor  Duncan  called  a  special  session  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  the  following  July,  and  urged 
either  modification  or  repeal  of  the  "internal  im- 
provement" acts.  But  his  efforts  were  fruitless. 
The  Legislature  refused  to  destroy  or  mar  its  handi- 
work. Most  of  those  jocund  castle-builders  could 
not  bring  themselves  to  believe  that  the  ambitious 
structure  which  they  had  begun  to  rear  with  so  much 
pride  was,  after  all,  a  mere  house  of  cards,  shaking 
in  the  first  gust  of  bad  weather  and  ready  to  fall 
about  their  ears.  Prophecies  of  such  a  disaster  met, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  with  stubborn  opti- 
mism, especially  from  the  ranks  of  the  Whig  minor- 
ity. They  stood  pledged  as  a  political  unit  to  the 
policy  of  munificent  public  works;  and  enough 
Democrats  felt  similarly  committed  to  join  them  in 
bringing  about  a  rejection  of  the  Governor's  plea. 

More  than  that,  during  the  following  sessions,  un- 
der Lincoln's  guidance  —  for  he  had  meanwhile  be- 
come the  recognized  leader  of  his  party  in  the 
House  —  these  "improvement"  men,  still  bat-eyed, 
reached  the  climax  of  their  folly,  and  actually  en- 
larged the  scope  of  the  enterprise  by  nearly  one  mil- 


232  HONEST    ABE 

lion  dollars.  The  rest  is  soon  told.  Hardly  had  this 
last  reckless  step  been  taken  when  a  wave  of  that 
utter  demoralization  which  marked  the  panic  struck 
Illinois  with  crushing  force.  Improvement  bonds 
could  no  longer  be  sold  except  at  ruinous  discounts. 
Some  of  the  securities  had  been  entrusted  to  bankers 
who  failed,  while  other  parcels  were  moved  under 
circumstances  which  smelt  strongly  of  fraud. 

Collections,  moreover,  seemed  impossible.  The 
treasury  of  the  State  was  nearly  empty.  Its  credit, 
if  not  quite  gone,  was  badly  shaken,  and  so  were  all 
its  fond  illusions.  The  dazzling  game  had,  in  fact, 
come  to  an  end.  Without  funds  or  prospects  for 
raising  any,  the  famous  "system"  collapsed.  Obvi- 
ously what  the  situation  now  required  left  but  slen- 
der choice  of  action.  The  mischief  already  done  had 
to  be  undone,  as  fully  as  circumstances  would  allow, 
and  the  "internal  improvement"  laws  must  be  re- 
pealed. Yet  the  Whigs  did  not  take  kindly  to  this 
programme.  They  gave  ground  sullenly,  Lincoln 
voting  against  repeal  with  the  rest  of  his  party 
through  several  sessions,  until  at  last  the  logic 
of  events  forced  them  to  help  their  Democratic  col- 
leagues put  the  whole  deplorable  business  "down 
in  a  lump,"  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  "without 
benefit  of  clergy."  2G 

Unfortunately  there  was  one  detail  that  could  not 
be  put  down  so  summarily.  The  public  debt,  which 
had  been  piled  up  with  such  assurance,  remained 
to  perplex  its  crestfallen  creators.  They  discovered, 
too  late,  that  bonds  can  be  more  easily  voted  than 
annulled;  and  while  casting  about  for  a  way  out  of 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      233 

their  dilemma,  they  found  themselves  facing  an  in- 
terest day  with  no  adequate  balance  in  sight  to  pay 
the  bill.  For  a  brief  period  Illinois  honor  hung  in 
the  balance.  Some  of  these  precious  legislators 
wished  to  repudiate  the  entire  indebtedness  outright 
—  principal  as  well  as  interest ;  others,  not  quite  so 
shameless,  proposed  that  the  Government,  disre- 
garding face  values,  should  deal  with  the  bonds  on 
the  basis  of  what  it  had  received  for  them  when  they 
were  sold;  while  still  others  favored  discrimination 
against  such  of  the  securities  only  as  had  been  dis- 
posed of  illegally  or  acquired  by  questionable  means. 
With  the  last  of  these  Lincoln  agreed  so  far  as 
concerned  bonds  held  by  those  who  had  themselves 
been  parties  to  fraudulent  transfers.  Otherwise,  none 
of  the  suggested  expedients  won  his  approval.  He 
evinced  no  sympathy  for  repudiation,  in  whatever 
form  it  presented  itself,  nor  was  his  unmercenary 
mind  greatly  exercised  over  the  money  that  had 
been  misspent.  What  did  concern  him  mightily  at 
this  juncture,  though,  was  the  unmistakable  trend 
toward  dishonesty  and  bad  faith  into  which  such 
ideas  were  luring  the  State.  To  head  off  that  tend- 
ency, he  set  himself  the  task  of  raising  somehow  at 
once  sufficient  funds  for  the  accruing  interest.  It 
seemed,  in  a  sense,  peculiarly  his  affair.  As  a  mem- 
ber%  of  the  Committee  on  Finance  for  three  succes- 
sive terms,  and  as  the  acknowledged  leader  of  those 
who  had  been  most  active  in  passing  this  wild-cat 
legislation,  Lincoln's  share  of  the  responsibility  was 
no  small  one.  He  frankly  admitted  it.  Yet  here, 
again,  the  man's  sterling  character  redeemed  the 


234  HONEST    ABE 

faults  of  his  business  training.  However  blindly  he 
may  have  groped  with  the  others  among  the  mazes 
of  these  financial  and  economic  ventures,  when  the 
time  came  at  last  to  settle  for  their  mistakes,  he  saw, 
with  crystal  clearness,  that  anything  short  of  pay- 
ment in  full  would  spell  dishonor.  The  very  language 
of  the  "improvement"  act  itself  fixed  this  standard, 
unless  indeed  we  are  to  regard  as  a  mere  stock-job- 
ber's flourish  the  words,  "for  which  payments  and 
redemption,  well  and  truly  to  be  made  and  effected, 
the  faith  of  the  State  of  Illinois  is  hereby  irrevocably 
pledged."  27 

But  how  were  the  needed  funds  to  be  obtained? 
A  short-time  loan  secured  by  hypothecated  bonds 
had  been  proposed,  and  the  idea  met  with  favor. 
But  Lincoln  objected.  It  would,  he  claimed,  carry 
them  along  merely  a  few  months,  and  leave  the  prob- 
lem still  unsolved.  His  solution,  "after  turning  the 
matter  over  in  every  way,"  was  to  issue  "interest 
bonds"  which  should  be  met  eventually  by  taxes 
derived  from  public  lands.28  Both  these  plans  were 
far  from  ideal.  They  are  suggestive  of  the  shifts 
resorted  to  by  that  impecunious  old  gentleman  who 
thanked  God  because  he  had  succeeded,  at  last,  in 
borrowing  enough  money  to  pay  his  debts. 

The  alternative  presented  to  Illinois,  however,  of 
meeting  its  obligations  by  laying  a  heavy  direct 
tax  upon  the  impoverished  people  of  the  State  was, 
as  Lincoln  truly  said,  out  of  the  question.  Con- 
sequently we  find  him,  when  his  own  measure  failed 
of  adoption,  helping  to  put  through  the  short- 
time  loan.  In  fact,  by  that  means  the  interest 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      235 

charges  payable  during  1841  were  met,  as  they  be- 
came due;  and  one  ugly  crisis  was,  for  the  time  being, 
averted.  Still,  the  inevitable  crash  had  merely  been 
postponed,  not  prevented.  Illinois  defaulted  on  its 
bonds  during  the  following  year.  By  that  time, 
however,  Lincoln,  having  attended  his  last  session 
as  a  Representative,  was  spared  the  humiliation  of 
officially  facing  this  disgrace. 

Other  ordeals  growing  out  of  the  general  disaster 
were  less  easy  to  avoid.  A  notable  instance  had  run 
through  several  of  Lincoln's  preceding  terms,  when 
the  State  Bank  of  Illinois  found  itself  in  deep  water. 
Compelled,  like  so  many  similar  institutions,  to  sus- 
pend specie  payment  through  the  panic  days  of 
1837,  that  enterprise  seemed  doomed  to  certain  de- 
struction, because  under  the  law  such  a  suspension 
for  sixty  days  together  was  to  be  followed  by  for- 
feiture of  its  charter  and  liquidation  of  its  affairs. 
But  those  affairs,  the  reader  will  remember,  were 
concerned,  to  an  intimate  degree,  with  the  recently 
adopted  scheme  for  "internal  improvements."  In 
fact,  the  two  interests  had  become  so  closely  inter- 
locked that  whatever  menaced  the  stability  of  the 
bank  might  well  have  been  deemed  a  source  of  dan- 
ger to  the  State. 

Naturally,  no  time  was  lost  in  providing  the  rem- 
edy ;  and  an  Assembly,  convened  during  the  summer 
of  1837,  extended  the  period  during  which  specie 
could  legally  be  withheld  "until  the  end  of  the 
next  general  or  special  session."  The  fateful  day 
came,  but  not  the  resumption  of  specie  payment. 
So  the  Legislature  that  met  in  December,  1839,  after 


236  HONEST    ABE 

listening  to  the  several  reports  made  by  a  joint 
select  investigating  committee  of  which  Lincoln 
was  a  member,  revived  the  forfeited  charter  and 
granted  still  further  grace  to  "the  close  of  the  next 
session."  Conditions,  however,  so  far  as  available 
specie  went,  became  worse  rather  than  better.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  the  following  Assembly  —  a  special 
one  —  was  called  in  November,  1840,  at  Spring- 
field, to  provide  funds  for  defraying  interest  on  the 
bonded  debt,  that  brief  sitting  alone  seemingly  in- 
tervened between  the  bank  and  ruin. 

This  prospect  mightily  gratified  the  Democrats. 
They  had  grown  hostile  toward  the  "rag-barons," 
as  these  delinquent  capitalists  were  then  frequently 
called ;  while  the  Whigs,  on  the  contrary,  saw  in  their 
plight  nothing  short  of  a  public  calamity.  So  Lin- 
coln and  his  followers  determined  to  keep  the  House, 
which  met  at  that  time  in  the  Methodist  Church, 
from  finally  adjourning  until  the  approaching  regu- 
lar Assembly,  within  a  few  days,  might  enable  them 
to  give  the  bank  a  new  lease  of  life.  An  earnestly 
contested  parliamentary  struggle  ensued.  The  Whig 
minority  cannot  be  said  to  have  made  much  headway 
save  toward  the  close  of  the  session,  after  attendance 
in  the  House  had  thinned  out,  and  the  Democrats 
were  ready  to  vote  adjournment  without  day.  Then 
the  friends  of  the  bank,  under  Lincoln's  leadership, 
set  about  warding  off  that  stroke  by  absenting  them- 
selves in  sufficient  numbers  to  break  the  quorum. 
This  procedure  required  alert  team-play.  While  Lin- 
coln and  his  colleague  Joseph  Gillespie  remained  to 
demand  the  ayes  and  noes,  their  associates  left  in  a 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      237 

body.  Directly  afterwards,  when  the  opponents  of 
the  bank  tried  to  vote  a  final  adjournment,  they 
were  halted,  as  had  been  planned,  by  the  point  of 
order,  "No  quorum."  A  call  of  the  House  having 
been  ordered,  the  sergeant-at-arms  rounded  up  a 
number  of  the  absentees  and  brought  them  in. 
Amidst  much  excitement  Lincoln  hurried  to  the 
church  door.  It  was  locked.  Turning  as  quickly  to 
a  window,  with  the  faithful  Gillespie  and  Asahel 
Gridley,  of  McLean  County,  at  his  heels,  he  jumped 
out,  but  not  before  the  House  had  succeeded  in  ad- 
journing. 

There  seemed  still  to  be  a  chance  for  the  State 
Bank,  however.  That  ill-starred  enterprise  had  not 
quite  reached  the  closing  stage.  Within  a  few  weeks 
its  flickering  life  was  again  prolonged  by  legislative 
means,  and  the  end  was  again  postponed,  but  not, 
we  should  add,  for  long.  Final  dissolution  presently 
set  in.  And  after  clinging  to  existence  against  des- 
perate odds,  through  some  very  trying  months,  the 
bank  collapsed,  at  last,  beyond  all  hope  of  recovery. 
As  for  Lincoln,  the  lengths  to  which  he  had  gone  in 
his  futile  efforts  to  save  it  left  him  penitent.  He 
would  gladly  have  relegated  that  discreditable  exit 
through  the  church  window  to  the  limbo  of  things 
best  forgotten.  But  the  public  memory  is  tenacious 
of  such  picturesque  misdeeds,  and  long  after  what 
really  mattered  in  the  State  Bank's  tragic  story  had 
passed  from  men's  minds,  the  ghost  of  this  little 
escapade  returned  at  times  to  trouble  its  inventor.29 

There  were  not  many  disquieting  recollections  of 
that  sort  to  vex  Lincoln's  peace  of  mind ;  and  hap- 


238  HONEST    ABE 

pily  so,  for  he  became  sensitive  in  later  days  con- 
cerning them.  When  all  is  said,  however,  the  few 
lapses  just  disclosed  —  lapses  which  his  admirers 
might  well  have  wished  otherwise  —  should  perhaps 
be  charged  to  a  callow  excess  of  legislative  ardor 
rather  than  to  a  deficiency  in  correct  political  prin- 
ciples. For  Lincoln's  conduct  as  a  politician  —  that 
is  to  say  his  conduct  regarded  from  the  personal 
rather  than  the  parliamentary  point  of  view  —  was 
above  reproach.  Indeed,  he  bore  himself  where  his 
own  interests  were  concerned  with  an  attention  to  the 
niceties  of  honor  that  evoked  admiring  comments. 
How  far  these  encomiums  went  may  be  inferred 
from  a  typical  one  by  Judge  Samuel  C.  Parks,  who 
wrote :  "  I  have  often  said  that  for  a  man  who  was  for 
the  quarter  of  a  century  both  a  lawyer  and  a  politi- 
cian, he  was  the  most  honest  man  I  ever  knew."  30 

That  same  rectitude,  in  fact,  which  debarred  him 
from  taking  a  shabby  case  at  law  when  cases  were 
not  too  plentiful,  kept  his  politics  unsoiled.  The 
man's  ambition  was  keen,  keener  by  far  than  even 
his  need  of  fees;  yet  the  closest  scrutiny  reveals  no 
personal  let-down  anywhere  in  his  code  while  follow- 
ing either  pursuit.  Lincoln  failed  to  conceive,  de- 
spite certain  commonly  accepted  tenets  to  the  con- 
trary, among  public  men  the  world  over,  why  there 
should  be  one  kind  of  conscience  for  the  private  cit- 
izen, and  another,  of  a  wholly  different  variety,  for 
the  politician. 

How  punctilious  a  campaigner  this  man  could  be 
is  illustrated  by  a  little  incident  that  took  place  on 
one  occasion  when  he  was  running  for  the  Legisla- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS 


239 


ture.  A  candidate  for  another  place  —  an  office- 
seeker  of  whom  he  did  not  approve  —  accompanied 
Lincoln  to  the  polls  on  election  day,  and  ostenta- 
tiously voted  for  him  with  the  hope,  no  doubt,  of  se- 
curing a  similar  compliment  in  return.  But  his  cast 
went  far  wide  of  its  mark.  For  Lincoln,  ignoring  the 
bait,  greatly  to  the  admiration  of  those  who  saw  the 
occurrence,  voted  against  him.  Log-rolling  to  in- 
crease his  own  vote  at  election  time  and  log-rolling 
to  further  the  passage  of  a  bill  were  acts  so  dissimilar 
in  the  eyes  of  the  young  member  from  Sangamon 
that  he  would  not  stoop  to  the  one,  while  he  made 
almost  a  fine  art  of  the  other. 

Lincoln  looked  with  disfavor,  even  during  those 
ill-regulated  days,  upon  the  methods  employed  by 
unscrupulous  politicians  to  attain  their  ends.  He 
denounced  the  whole  class  as  "  a  set  of  men  who  have 
interests  aside  from  the  interests  of  the  people,  and 
who,  to  say  the  most  of  them,  are,  taken  as  a  mass, 
at  least  one  long  step  removed  from  honest  men." 
The  "holier-than-thou"  tone  of  this  criticism  must 
have  flashed  at  the  moment  through  his  mind,  for  he 
hastened  to  add:  "I  say  this  with  the  greater  free- 
dom because,  being  a  politician  myself,  none  can 
regard  it  as  personal."  31 

Somewhat  of  that  same  disapproval  was  more 
pithily  expressed  in  another  country,  at  a  later  date, 
by  no  less  a  personage  than  Benjamin  Disraeli  when, 
after  sounding  the  depths  and  scaling  the  heights  of 
English  public  life  through  a  period  of  strenuous 
years,  he  remarked  to  a  colleague:  "Look  at  it  as 
you  will,  ours  is  a  beastly  profession." 


240  HONEST    ABE 

Benjamin  and  Abraham  had  not  many  traits  in 
common :  they  were  the  products  of  vastly  different 
systems;  yet  a  striking  resemblance  runs  through 
their  fine  sense  of  personal  honor,  their  prolonged 
struggles  with  debt,  their  disregard  for  money,  and 
their  contempt  of  those  engaged  in  politics  to  serve 
corrupt  private  ends.  Venality  among  office-hold- 
ers early  aroused  Lincoln's  indignation.  He  could 
sympathize  with  nearly  any  human  weakness  but 
dishonesty,  and  the  dishonesty  of  trusted  public 
servants  seemed  to  him  doubly  reprehensible.  Con- 
sequently, in  dealing  with  such  thieves,  this  gentle 
man,  usually  so  tender  of  other  men's  sensibilities, 
smote  and  spared  not.  In  fact,  so  severe  could  be  his 
blows  that  the  scholarly  English  leader  —  expert  at 
sarcasm  though  he  was  —  is  credited  with  no  more 
scathing  utterance  than  the  Illinoisan  pronounced 
against  certain  rogues  who  had  robbed  the  American 
Government.  Their  castigation  furnished  a  stirring 
incident  to  the  famous  debate  on  "  Subtreasuries " 
that  took  place  at  Springfield,  during  December, 
1839.  Seven  participants  —  four  Democrats  and 
three  Whigs — had  spoken,  when  Lincoln  closed  the 
series  in  what  some  considered  the  best  effort  of 
all.  Addressing  himself  to  the  argument  made  by  a 
predecessor  in  the  opposing  camp,  he  said:  — 

"Mr.  Lamborn  insists  that  the  difference  between 
the  Van  Buren  Party  and  the  Whigs  is  that  although 
the  former  sometimes  err  in  practice,  they  are  always 
correct  in  principle,  whereas  the  latter  are  wrong 
in  principle;  and,  better  to  impress  this  proposition, 
he  uses  a  figurative  expression  in  these  words,  '  The 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      241 

Democrats  are  vulnerable  in  the  heel,  but  they  are 
sound  in  the  head  and  the  heart.'  The  first  branch 
of  the  figure,  —  that  is,  that  the  Democrats  are  vul- 
nerable in  the  heel,  —  I  admit  is  not  merely  figura- 
tively, but  literally  true.  Who  that  looks  but  for  a 
moment  at  their  Swartwouts,  their  Prices,  their 
Harringtons,  and  their  hundreds  of  others,  scamper- 
ing away  with  the  public  money  to  Texas,  to  Europe, 
and  to  every  spot  of  the  earth  where  a  villain  may 
hope  to  find  refuge  from  justice,  can  at  all  doubt  that 
they  are  most  distressingly  affected  in  their  heels 
with  a  species  of  'running  itch.'  It  seems  that  this 
malady  of  their  heels  operates  on  these  sound-headed 
and  honest-hearted  creatures  very  much  like  the 
cork  leg  in  the  comic  song  did  on  its  owner;  which, 
when  he  had  once  got  started  on  it,  the  more  he  tried 
to  stop  it,  the  more  it  would  run  away.  At  the  haz- 
ard of  wearing  this  point  threadbare,  I  will  relate  an 
anecdote  which  seems  too  strikingly  in  point  to  be 
omitted.  A  witty  Irish  soldier,  who  was  always 
boasting  of  his  bravery  when  no  danger  was  near, 
but  who  invariably  retreated  without  orders  at  the 
first  charge  of  an  engagement,  being  asked  by  his 
captain  why  he  did  so,  replied,  —  'Captain,  I  have 
as  brave  a  heart  as  Julius  Caesar  ever  had;  but, 
somehow  or  other,  whenever  danger  approaches,  my 
cowardly  legs  will  run  away  with  it.' 

' '  So  with  Mr.  Lamborn's  party.  They  take  the  pub- 
lic money  into  their  hand  for  the  most  laudable  pur- 
pose that  wise  heads  and  honest  hearts  can  dictate ; 
but  before  they  can  possibly  get  it  out  again,  their  ras- 
cally 'vulnerable  heels'  will  run  away  with  them."  32 


242  HONEST    ABE 

These  thieving  officials  were  of  a  type  common  — 
far  too  common  —  among  the  spoilsmen  billeted 
upon  their  country  by  the  party  in  power  during 
those  easy-going  days.  Yet,  numerous  as  the  graft- 
ers must  have  been,  Lincoln  did  not  allow  mere 
weight  of  numbers  to  unbalance  his  sense  of  their 
guilt.  Nor  was  he  less  keenly  alive  to  other  forms  of 
dishonesty  that  manifested  themselves,  from  time 
to  time,  among  certain  self-seeking  politicians,  who, 
trimming  their  sails  deftly  at  critical  moments  be- 
tween conflicting  breezes,  somehow  turned  up,  with 
charters  revised  to  date,  in  any  snug-harbor  which, 
by  an  odd  coincidence,  happened  to  contain  the 
lucrative  offices. 

How  hard  he  could  be  upon  such  gentry  may  be 
inferred  from  the  oft-related  retort  to  George  For- 
quer.  It  was  uttered  early  in  Lincoln's  career,  before 
he  had  attained  any  considerable  public  standing, 
against  a  man,  moreover,  who  as  a  lawyer,  Rep- 
resentative, State  Senator,  Attorney-General,  and 
Secretary  of  State,  appears  to  have  ranked  for  years 
among  the  ablest  leaders  in  Illinois.  Forquer,  having 
recently  swung  over  from  the  Whigs  to  the  Demo- 
crats, had  just  been  rewarded  with  an  appointment 
to  the  Registry  of  the  Land  Office  at  Springfield. 
He  cut  a  wide  swathe,  and  his  newly  erected  man- 
sion, the  finest  in  the  city,  attracted  attention,  not 
alone  for  its  beauty,  but  also  because,  conspicuously 
displayed  on  the  structure,  rose  the  only  lightning- 
rod  to  be  seen  throughout  the  community.  It  was  at 
about  this  time  that  the  two  men  crossed  swords. 
Lincoln,  making  the  canvass  of  1836  for  his  reelec- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      243 

tion  to  the  Legislature,  spoke  at  a  Springfield  meeting 
with  such  effect  as  to  stir  the  listening  Forquer,  an 
acknowledged  master  of  invective,  into  a  reply.  The 
Register  felt  obliged  to  vindicate  his  recently  ac- 
quired Democratic  principles,  but  what  moved  him 
most  was  a  conviction,  as  he  explained  it,  that  "this 
young  man  would  have  to  be  taken  down."  With  a 
lofty  assumption  of  superiority,  the  orator  went  on 
to  express  regret  over  the  unpleasant  task  which  a 
sense  of  duty  had  imposed  upon  him ;  yet  the  senti- 
ment was  apparently  not  allowed  to  dull  the  keen 
edge  of  his  sarcasm.  For  the  onslaught  is  said  to 
have  been  uncommonly  severe. 

At  its  conclusion  Lincoln,  who  had  stood  near, 
laboring  under  manifest  excitement  while  atten- 
tively regarding  his  assailant,  remounted  the  plat- 
form and  made  a  rejoinder  that  has  become  historic. 
The  final  words  lingered  for  many  years  in  the  mem- 
ories of  those  who  heard  them.  One  listener,  a  de- 
voted friend,  has  thus  recalled  what  he  believes  to 
be  substantially  Lincoln's  language:  "Mr.  Forquer 
commenced  his  speech  by  announcing  that  the 
young  man  would  have  to  be  taken  down.  It  is  for 
you,  fellow  citizens,  not  for  me  to  say  whether  I  am 
up  or  down.  The  gentleman  has  seen  fit  to  allude  to 
my  being  a  young  man;  but  he  forgets  that  I  am 
older  in  years  than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of 
politicians.  I  desire  to  live,  and  I  desire  place  and 
distinction;  but  I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like 
the  gentleman,  live  to  see  the  day  that  I  would 
change  my  politics  for  an  office  worth  three  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year,  and  then  feel  compelled  to  erect 


244  HONEST    ABE 

a  lightning-rod  to  protect  a  guilty  conscience  from 
an  offended  God."  33 

The  effect  was  electric.  Forquer's  rod  had  not 
averted  the  lightning.  He  had,  in  fact,  received  a 
grievous  stroke.  His  antagonist  was  borne  from 
the  court-house  on  the  crest  of  an  enthusiastic 
crowd;  and  during  the  brief  remainder  of  the  turn- 
coat's life,  Lincoln's  reproach  stuck  in  the  man's 
fame  like  a  burdock  on  a  woolly  goat. 

Forquer  was  not  the  only  patriot  of  his  peculiar 
stripe  to  arouse  Lincoln's  slow-rising  ire.  It  reached 
the  boiling  point  against  another  politician  who 
apparently  placed  a  literal  construction  on  that 
rather  loose  epigram  whereby  party  has  been  defined 
as  "the  madness  of  many  for  the  gain  of  a  few."  In 
this  particular  instance,  "the  gain"  fell  short  of 
what  at  least  one  among  the  favored  "few"  consid- 
ered his  just  share.  The  malcontent,  Charles  H. 
Constable  by  name,  lawyer  by  profession,  and  Whig 
by  election,  was  intensely  dissatisfied  with  his  polit- 
ical associates.  They  had  twice  elected  him  to  the 
State  Senate;  but  considering  his  talents,  which  are 
admitted  to  have  been  of  no  mean  order,  he  felt  him- 
self entitled  to  more  substantial  recognition.  So  insist- 
ent became  this  feeling  that  habits  of  disloyalty  grew 
with  it;  and  he  lost  no  opportunity  of  denouncing 
the  policy  pursued  by  the  party  toward  its  younger 
supporters.  These  fault-findings,  moreover,  waxed 
especially  censorious  if  Whig  leaders  happened  to  be 
present,  as  was  the  case  one  day  on  circuit  when  Con- 
stable, with  others,  visited  Judge  Davis  and  Lincoln 
in  a  room  at  Paris  that  the  two  occupied  together. 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS 

On  this  occasion  the  man  with  a  grievance  lost  no 
time  in  taking  the  floor.  He  characterized  the  Whigs 
as  "old-fogyish,"  and  charged  them  with  indiffer- 
ence to  rising  men ;  while  the  Democrats  were  lauded 
for  their  progressive  methods  in  these  respects. 
What  the  grumbler  said  was  hardly  borne  out  by  the 
facts ;  and  perhaps  none  of  those  present  realized  this 
more  keenly  than  Lincoln,  whose  own  experience 
proved  quite  the  contrary.  He  listened  in  silence, 
however,  for  he  was  standing  at  the  time  before  a 
mirror,  with  his  coat  off,  shaving.  But  when  the 
speaker  went  on  to  instance  himself  as  a  victim  of 
political  ingratitude  and  neglect,  Lincoln  turned 
upon  him  sharply  and  said:  "Mr.  Constable,  I  un- 
derstand you  perfectly,  and  have  noticed  for  some 
time  back  that  you  have  been  slowly  and  cautiously 
picking  your  way  over  to  the  Democratic  Party." 

An  exciting  scene  ensued.  Both  men  became  90 
incensed  that  only  the  combined  efforts  of  all  the 
others  who  were  present  sufficed  to  prevent  a  fight, 
though  Lincoln,  as  one  of  the  spectators  expressed 
it,  seemed  for  a  time  to  be  "terribly  willing."  The 
quarrel  was  patched  up,  however,  but  not  Con- 
stable's resentment  against  the  Whig  Party;  for 
shortly  afterward,  he  revealed  how  just  had  been 
Lincoln's  rebuke  by  deserting  to  the  Democracy.34 

These  shifty  place-hunters  were  doubly  blamable 
in  "Honest  Abe's"  eyes.  He  despised  politicians 
who  forsook  their  colors  to  secure  promotions  under 
the  standards  of  the  enemy,  not  only  because  such 
acts  were  dishonorable  in  themselves,  but  also,  it 
must  be  confessed,  because  they  involved  treason  to 


246  HONEST    ABE 

political  associates.  For  Lincoln  was  a  partisan.  His 
temperament,  no  less  than  his  fidelity  to  principle, 
made  him  a  champion  eager  and  ever  ready  to  bat- 
tle for  cherished  convictions.  But  the  feudal  days 
of  single  combat  had  passed.  He  did  not  believe 
in  battling  alone.  Like  so  many  other  public  men 
of  recent  modern  times,  he  did  believe  in  the  organ- 
ized expression  of  economic  opinion  which  is  called 
a  party.  To  him,  as  to  them,  it  appeared  obvious 
—  almost  elemental  —  that  voters  who  accept  the 
same  cardinal  doctrines  should  associate  them- 
selves together  for  united  action,  and  that  when 
several  such  associations  with  conflicting  views, 
tempered,  however,  by  the  sober  restraints  of  intel- 
ligent patriotism,  confront  one  another  in  the  field 
of  politics,  there  is  an  approach  at  least  to  well- 
balanced  government.  The  party  in  power  deems 
itself  answerable  to  the  entire  nation  for  a  success- 
ful administration,  the  party  or  parties  out  of  power 
feel  an  equal  responsibility  for  watchful  criticism; 
while  the  system  itself,  though  far  from  ideal,  pro- 
vides a  practical  solution  to  some  perplexing  prob- 
lems, and  a  safeguard  of  constitutional  rights.  As 
for  the  rest,  Lincoln's  common  sense  told  him  that 
within  such  organizations  alone  was  efficient  political 
action  possible.  Explaining  this  idea  on  one  notable 
occasion,  and  speaking  from  the  politician's  not  too 
lofty  point  of  view,  he  said:  "  A  free  people,  in  times 
of  peace  and  quiet,  —  when  pressed  by  no  common 
danger,  —  naturally  divide  into  parties.  At  such 
times  the  man  who  is  of  neither  party  is  not,  cannot 
be,  of  any  consequence."  35 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      247 

The  speaker  did,  at  an  early  day,  become  of  "con- 
sequence." It  was  as  a  party  man  that  he  received 
the  vote  of  the  Whig  minority  for  Speaker  of  the 
Illinois  House  in  1838,  and  again  in  i84O.36  During 
those  stormy  sessions,  the  parliamentary  leadership 
which  went  with  this  distinction  could  have  been 
held  by  a  zealous  partisan  only.  Lincoln  was  that, 
but  of  course,  be  it  said,  he  was  abundantly  more 
than  that.  For  he  commended  himself  also  to  his 
colleagues  by  signal  qualities  of  a  different  character. 
In  the  first  place,  his  remarkable  talent  for  mastery 
had  come  into  play  betimes.  To  quote  Governor 
Reynolds:  "As  soon  as  he  got  his  bearings,  got  ac- 
quainted, and  found  how  things  were  drifting,  he 
took  the  Legislature  good-naturedly  by  the  nose, 
and  led  them,  just  like  he  did  his  township  on  the 
Sangamon."  37 

Then,  too,  under  this  easy  assumption  of  control 
were  developing  the  traits  that  draw  men  to  a  polit- 
ical chieftain.  A  ready  grasp  of  public  questions,  an 
equally  ready  skill  in  presenting  them  to  the  people 
or  in  discussing  them  with  an  opponent,  the  never- 
failing  humor  which  could  raise  a  laugh  when  a  laugh 
was  needed  without  too  often  leaving  a  sting  behind, 
an  almost  infallible  intuition  for  the  trend  of  the  pop- 
ular will,  certain  charms  of  personality  which  en- 
deared him  to  friends  and  won  over  enemies,  a  nat- 
ural aptitude  for  contriving  measures  of  attack  and 
defense,  an  uncommon  degree  of  courage,  —  moral 
as  well  as  physical,  —  and  an  even  rarer  fidelity  to  a 
high  standard  of  honor,  —  all  these  doubtless  had 
their  influence  upon  the  vote.  But  that  the  choice 


248  HONEST    ABE 

centered  in  him,  apparently  without  a  dissenting 
voice  from  among  his  fellow  Whigs,  was  also 
highly  significant.  For  such  a  compliment  furnishes 
the  measure  of  a  leader's  devotion  to  his  party.  It 
was  as  a  partisan,  moreover,  that  Lincoln  figured 
prominently  in  Illinois  affairs  during  the  succeeding 
twenty  years,  amidst  a  clash  of  men  and  principles 
theretofore  unparalleled  for  political  rancor.  The 
issues  presented  by  the  problems  of  those  stirring 
times  had  to  be  fought  out  vigorously  on  party 
lines;  and  the  Sangamon  chief,  plunging  into  the 
thick  of  the  fray,  appears  to  have  relished  the  zest 
of  combat  day  by  day,  no  less  than  the  occasional 
victory. 

A  man  usually  does  best  what  he  likes  best  to  do. 
Lincoln  loved  politics.  It  was  the  one  pursuit  out- 
side of  his  profession  that  he  thoroughly  enjoyed 
and  in  which  he  felt  thoroughly  at  home.  Almost 
any  time  during  those  twenty  years,  with  possibly 
one  interval,  people  might  have  said  of  him,  as  was 
said  of  another  public  man,  "he  eats,  he  drinks,  he 
sleeps  politics."  But  at  no  time  could  Lincoln  have 
truthfully  forestalled  Bismarck's  lament,  "Politics 
has  eaten  up  every  other  hobby  I  had";  for  in  his 
case  there  were  no  other  hobbies.  From  early  man- 
hood to  the  end  of  his  career,  the  art  of  government 
with  its  kindred  activities  was  Lincoln's  sole  avo- 
cation. It  is  hardly  surprising,  therefore,  all  in  all,  to 
observe  what  consummate  skill  he  brought  to  the 
service  of  the  party.  Indeed,  a  mere  glance  over  this 
period  in  his  career  reveals  how  proficient  he  must 
have  been.  For  we  see  him  installing  a  system  of 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      249 

nomination  by  convention  among  the  Whigs,  de- 
spite prejudice  and  opposition;  making  the  keynote 
speeches,  as  they  were  called,  in  several  warmly  con- 
tested campaigns;  drawing  up  the  official  election 
circulars  and  appeals  to  the  people;  stumping  the 
field  in  his  own  behalf  or  in  that  of  other  local  can- 
didates; canvassing  the  State  on  the  electoral  tick- 
ets of  successive  Presidential  nominees ;  adroitly  tak- 
ing advantage  of  dissensions  in  the  opposing  camp, 
while  striving  with  rare  tact  to  compose  the  differ- 
ences in  his  own ;  planning,  advising,  controlling,  un- 
til he  became  the  ablest  political  manager,  and  at 
last,  —  to  anticipate  somewhat,  —  the  recognized 
authority  in  his  section  on  matters  affecting  the 
welfare  of  the  organization. 

Lincoln  was  what  is  commonly  termed  a  "practi- 
cal" politician.  He  knew  the  ins  and  outs  of  vote- 
getting  as  only  a  seasoned  campaigner  can  know 
them.  In  fact,  nothing  of  political  significance 
seemed  to  escape  his  notice.  He  could  say,  for  the 
most  part,  where  the  big  men  of  the  State  would 
be  found  on  any  public  question;  nor  was  he  less 
accurately  informed  as  to  what  might  be  expected 
from  local  magnates  of  lesser  degree.  While  if  one  of 
them  did  depart  from  his  wonted  course,  in  principle 
or  tactics,  Lincoln's  intuitions  might  be  trusted  to 
prefigure,  with  some  nicety,  the  effect  of  that  depar- 
ture upon  the  man's  popularity.  For  his  grasp  of 
political  probabilities  amounted  almost  to  genius. 
How  this  or  that  district  would  go  under  given  cir- 
cumstances was  repeatedly  forecast  by  him  on  the 
of  an  election  with  unerring  precision ;  and  when 


250  HONEST    ABE 

the  returns  came  in,  he  manifested  equal  skill  among 
the  figures.  Every  column  had  some  story  to  tell 
him.  Every  gain  or  loss  was  promptly  noted,  often, 
indeed,  by  the  aid  of  his  well-stored  memory  alone; 
and  at  times,  before  the  tables  were  completed,  he 
would  place  a  prophetic  finger  on  the  changes  which 
presaged  defeat  or  victory. 

That  such  a  man  stood  high  in  the  party  councils 
goes  without  saying.  As  a  member  of  the  County 
Committee  or  the  State  Central  Committee,  his 
views  held  full  sway;  and  when  he  happened  to  be 
relieved  of  official  responsibility  in  the  management 
of  a  campaign,  those  who  were  in  charge  sent  for 
him,  at  important  junctures,  to  help  them  out. 
Speaking  of  Lincoln's  services  at  these  conferences, 
Horace  White,  who  once  acted  as  secretary  at  State 
headquarters  during  a  spirited  canvass,  said:  "The 
Committee  paid  the  utmost  deference  to  his  opin- 
ions. In  fact,  he  was  nearer  to  the  people  than  they 
were.  Traveling  the  circuit,  he  was  constantly 
brought  in  contact  with  the  most  capable  and  dis- 
cerning men  in  the  rural  community.  He  had  a  more 
accurate  knowledge  of  public  opinion  in  central 
Illinois  than  any  other  man  who  visited  the  commit- 
tee rooms,  and  he  knew  better  than  anybody  else 
what  kind  of  arguments  would  be  influential  with 
the  voters,  and  what  kind  of  men  could  best  pre- 
sent them."  38 

Moreover,  when  it  became  necessary  to  meet  or 
head  off  some  critical  move  on  the  part  of  their 
opponents,  Lincoln  brought  to  the  fore,  just  as  he 
did  in  the  courts,  that  crowning  gift  of  worldly 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      251 

shrewdness  which  not  infrequently  goes  with  sim- 
plicity of  nature  and  downright  honesty.  He  did  not 
mislead  himself  any  more  than  he  did  his  associates, 
for  he  saw  things  as  they  actually  were.  He  could 
put  himself  in  the  other  man's  place,  and  that  is  why 
he  could  make  so  close  a  calculation  as  to  what  the 
other  man,  under  given  circumstances,  would  pre- 
sumably do.  "The  other  man,"  during  one  cam- 
paign, at  least,  appears  to  have  been  wanting  in  such 
foresight.  And  when  on  that  occasion  the  projects 
of  the  Democrats  miscarried,  because  they  had 
failed  to  anticipate  how  Lincoln's  side  might  act, 
the  occurrence  called  forth  one  of  his  little  Menard 
County  stories. 

"This  situation  reminds  me,"  said  he,  "of  three 
or  four  fellows  out  near  Athens,  who  went  coon 
hunting  one  day.  After  being  out  some  time  the 
dogs  treed  a  coon,  which  was  soon  discovered  in  the 
extreme  top  of  a  very  tall  oak  tree.  They  had  only 
one  gun,  a  rifle;  and  after  some  discussion  as  to  who 
was  the  best  shot,  one  was  decided  on.  He  took  the 
rifle  and  got  into  a  good  position.  With  the  coon  in 
plain  view,  lying  close  on  a  projecting  limb,  and  at 
times  moving  slowly  along,  the  man  fired.  But  the 
coon  was  still  on  the  limb,  and  a  small  bunch  of 
leaves  from  just  in  front  of  the  coon  fluttered  down. 
The  surprise  and  indignation  of  the  other  fellows 
was  boundless.  All  sorts  of  epithets  were  heaped  on 
'the  best  shot,'  and  an  explanation  was  demanded 
for  his  failure  to  bring  down  the  coon.  'Well,'  he 
said,  'you  see,  boys,  by  gum,  I  sighted  just  a  leetle 
ahead,  and  'lowed  for  the  durned  thing  crawling.' "  39 


252  HONEST    ABE 

When  Lincoln,  in  the  course  of  a  political  contest, 
allowed  for  something  to  happen,  it  usually  did  not 
fall  very  far  short  of  taking  place.  A  fatalist  as  to 
the  great  impelling  current  whereby  a  nation  is  car- 
ried toward  its  destiny,  he  believed  that  social  and 
civic  causes,  however  they  may  be  impeded  or  di- 
verted for  a  time  in  their  operations,  must  at  last 
inevitably  lead  to  corresponding  effects.  His  fatal- 
ism, however,  was  of  the  robust  type.  It  recognized 
how  important  a  part  men  play  in  creating  these 
forces,  as  well  as  in  bringing  about  the  results.  Mir- 
acles formed  no  part  of  his  political  creed,  and  he 
waited  for  none  to  do  his  work.  So  we  find  him  re- 
peatedly in  the  thick  of  the  conflict,  straining  every 
nerve  to  gain  a  party  victory.  Such  of  his  election- 
time  letters  as  have  been  preserved  furnish  illumin- 
ating evidence  of  how  industrious  he  could  be.  Ap- 
pealing to  this  man,  arguing  with  that,  advising  one 
inquiring  supporter  in  the  rural  districts,  praising 
another,  warning  a  colleague  of  some  aggressive  step 
contemplated  by  their  opponents  here,  heartening 
a  hard-pressed  brother  there,  figuring,  explaining, 
forecasting,  Lincoln  pulled  apparently  every  straight 
wire  which  a  vigorous  use  of  the  mails  brought  within 
his  reach. 

He  appreciated  the  appeal  direct  at  its  full  value. 
And  to  this,  Gibson  W.  Harris,  one  of  the  young  men 
who  sometimes  assisted  him,  thus  bore  witness  in 
later  years:  "The  duty  fell  to  me  of  writing  letters, 
at  his  dictation,  to  influential  men  in  the  different 
counties,  down  to  even  obscure  precincts.  Finding 
the  task  not  only  burdensome,  but  slow,  I  suggested 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      253 

the  use  of  a  printed  circular  letter,  but  the  proposal 
was  vetoed  offhand.  A  printed  letter,  he  said,  would 
not  have  nearly  the  same  effect.  A  written  one  had 
the  stamp  of  personality,  was  more  flattering  to  the 
recipient,  and  would  tell  altogether  more  in  assuring 
his  good  will,  if  not  his  support.  So  for  several  days 
the  clerk  was  kept  busy  in  writing  more  letters. 
Young  and  inexperienced  as  I  was,  I  could  not  help 
noticing  how  shrewdly  they  were  put  together,  and 
no  two  exactly  alike.  He  approached  each  corre- 
spondent in  a  different  way,  and  I  soon  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  necessity  he  felt  for  doing  this 
was  his  weightiest  reason,  after  all,  for  discarding 
type."  40 

Lincoln  did  not  lose  sight,  however,  of  the  wider 
opportunities  for  influencing  voters  presented  by  the 
printing-press.  A  tireless  student  of  newspapers 
himself,  reading  them  in  fact,  during  this  period, 
almost  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  general  publica- 
tions, Lincoln  became  so  familiar  with  the  journals 
issued  throughout  the  State  that  their  several  party 
affiliations  were,  whenever  he  had  occasion  to  recall 
them,  at  his  tongue's  end.  Many  an  article  from  his 
pen,  purporting  to  be  an  expression  of  editorial  opin- 
ion, appeared  from  time  to  time  in  various  Illinois 
sheets.  Whether  the  respective  editors,  when  they 
adopted  these  contributions  as  their  own,  wholly 
eliminated  the  element  of  deception  that  enters  into 
such  transactions,  is  perhaps  a  moot  question.  One 
editor,  at  least,  by  a  simple  course  avoided  any 
misunderstanding  on  the  subject.  This  was  Jacob 
Harding  who  published  a  country  newspaper  in  the 


254  HONEST    ABE 

southern  part  of  the  State.  To  him  Lincoln  once 
wrote:  "Friend  Harding:  I  have  been  reading  your 
paper  for  three  or  four  years,  and  have  paid  you 
nothing  for  it."  Enclosing  ten  dollars  the  writer 
adds:  "  Put  it  into  your  pocket,  say  nothing  further 
about  it." 

The  journalist  did  as  he  was  bid.  But  soon  there- 
after, when  the  generous  subscriber  sent  him  a  polit- 
ical article  with  the  request  for  its  publication  in  the 
editorial  columns  of  his  "valued  paper,"  Harding 
promptly  declined,  "because,"  he  explained,  "I 
long  ago  made  it  a  rule  to  publish  nothing  as  edito- 
rial matter  not  written  by  myself." 

The  joke  was  on  Lincoln.  Laughing  heartily  over 
the  letter,  he  read  it  aloud  to  his  law-partner,  and 
said :  "That  editor  has  a  rather  lofty  but  proper  con- 
ception of  true  journalism."  41 

This  experience  was  exceptional,  however.  For 
in  the  main,  Lincoln's  newspaper  contributions,  like 
his  personal  missives,  reached  their  intended  goals, 
as  indeed  did  most  of  his  projects  over  the  still  wider 
ranges  of  party  management.  A  practical  politician, 
he  employed  practical  methods.  That  much-decried 
scheme  of  coordinated  effort,  which  for  lack  of  a 
better  term  is  commonly  called  "the  machine," 
owed  its  development  among  the  Whigs  in  Illinois 
more  perhaps  to  him  than  to  any  other  leader.  As 
early  as  1840,  upon  the  eve  of  the  Harrison  cam- 
paign, he  put  forth  a  plan  for  thoroughly  organiz- 
ing the  party  within  the  State.  Four  other  men,  it  is 
true,  were  associated  with  him  on  the  Central  Com- 
mittee that  had  this  matter  in  hand,  but  the  enter- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      255 

prise  was  largely  his  work.  He  wrote  the  circular 
letter  which  explained  the  system  they  had  adopted, 
and  which  announced  explicitly  what  would  be 
required  thereafter  of  each  party  worker.  From 
the  several  county  committees  that  were  arbitrarily 
appointed  by  the  terms  of  the  circular,  down 
through  district  committees  and  sub-committees, 
—  even  to  the  individual  voters,  —  every  Whig  was 
assigned  to  his  part  in  the  undertaking.42  A  more 
complete  programme  for  the  control  of  political 
operations  is  not  easily  conceived.  Nor  do  we  often 
meet  with  a  document  of  this  class  so  frankly  ex- 
pressed in  the  imperative  mood.  Its  language  is  that 
of  a  master  to  his  men.  The  crack  of  the  party  whip 
seemingly  still  rings,  even  at  this  late  day,  through 
the  whole  performance;  and  the  hand  which  grasped 
the  whip  did  so  with  a  vigor  not  unlike  that  custom- 
arily displayed,  in  more  recent  decades,  by  the  leader 
to  whom  political  idiom  has  given  the  title  of "  Boss." 
But  the  parallel  goes  no  further.  Lincoln  was  not 
a  boss.  And  nothing  else  in  his  leadership  even  sug- 
gests the  mercenary  autocrats  whose  intrigues  have, 
from  time  to  time,  brought  reproach  upon  the  whole 
field  of  politics,  —  yes,  upon  republican  institutions 
themselves.  His  organization  was,  in  fact,  a  very 
different  affair  from  the  corrupt  local  machine  of  a 
later  period.  For  even  political  machines  have  no 
vices  of  their  own.  They  are  what  the  men  who  run 
them  make  them.  The  modern  ring  with  its  spoils- 
men, grafters,  heelers,  blackmailers,  thugs,  and 
what-not,  —  all  held  together  by  the  cohesive  power 
of  public  pelf  and  patronage,  —  could  not  have 


256  HONEST    ABE 

existed  for  a  moment  where  Lincoln  was  in  control. 
Nor  can  we  conceive  of  him  packing  primaries,  ma- 
nipulating pudding  ballots,  falsifying  election  re- 
turns, or  taking  part  in  any  of  those  numerous  other 
criminal  acts  whereby  the  wishes  of  honest  voters 
have,  on  notorious  occasions,  been  systematically 
frustrated.43  "He  could  not  cheat  people  out  of  their 
votes  any  more  than  out  of  their  money,"  writes 
Horace  White,  who  enjoyed  the  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  close  observation  already  spoken  of. 
"Mr.  Lincoln  never  gave  his  assent,  so  far  as  my 
knowledge  goes,  to  any  plan  or  project  for  getting 
votes  that  would  not  have  borne  the  full  light  of 
day."  44  He  never,  it  is  safe  to  add,  so  far  as  any- 
body's knowledge  goes,  allowed  his  passion  for  a 
triumph  at  the  polls  to  blur  an  uncommonly  clear 
vision  of  what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong.  Vir- 
tue, they  say,  wears  the  garb  of  no  party.  Yet  a 
Lincoln  could  evidently  be  loyal  to  his  organization, 
—  loyal,  if  you  will,  to  the  machine  itself, —  without 
losing  sight  of  what  he  owed,  in  the  last  event,  to  his 
own  ideals  and  to  the  national  well-being. 

There  was  still  another  obligation,  of  a  less  lofty 
character,  however,  that  neither  parties  nor  princi- 
ples could  make  this  alert  politician  wholly  forget. 
No  matter  how  freely  he  gave  himself  up  to  the  pub- 
lic, his  thoughts  were  rarely  withdrawn  long  from 
what  seemed  due,  as  the  phrase  goes,  to  number  one. 
The  appetite  for  distinction,  so  frankly  avowed  in 
that  maiden  address  sent  out  from  New  Salem,  had 
grown  by  the  very  efforts  made  to  satisfy  it.  For 
those  efforts  were  of  no  laggard  quality.  When  a 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      257 

young  man,  eager  to  rise  in  the  world,  must  first 
free  himself  from  the  triple  clog  of  so  many  youthful 
aspirations,  —  lowly  birth,  ignorance,  and  narrow 
fortunes,  —  he  sometimes  acquires  a  degree  of  mo- 
mentum that  is  not  diminished  even  after  the  need 
for  it  has  ceased.  This  happened  to  Lincoln.  The 
"little  engine  that  knew  no  rest"  stirred  him  to 
political  action  through  the  greater  portion  of  his 
life,  and  when  he  did  not  hold  a  public  place,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  engaged,  with  occasional  lulls,  in 
hot  pursuit  of  one.  Here  was  no  reluctant  patriot  of 
the  Washington-Marshall  order,  waiting  in  dignified 
retirement  for  the  office  to  seek  the  man.  On  the 
contrary,  Lincoln  went  out  to  meet  his  honors  more 
—  much  more  —  than  halfway.  And  of  all  the 
faulty  pictures  presented  by  intrepid  eulogists  to  a 
trustful  world,  none  perhaps  is  further  from  the  fact 
than  that  which  depicts  him  as  regretfully  interrupt- 
ing the  practice  of  the  law  in  order  to  enter  public 
life  at  the  call  of  duty.  The  sober,  unromantic  truth 
presents  quite  another  view.  It  reveals  the  real  Lin- 
coln who  ardently  desired  political  preferment,  and, 
with  characteristic  candor,  said  so.  Indeed,  few,  if 
any,  among  the  vote-getting  campaigners  of  his  time 
plunged  into  the  ruck  of  a  canvass  with  more  spirited 
self-assertion.  "  Do  you  suppose,"  he  once  wrote  to 
a  grumbling  young  politician,  "that  I  should  ever 
have  got  into  notice  if  I  had  waited  to  be  hunted  up 
and  pushed  forward  by  older  men?"  45 

No !  Lincoln  saw  to  his  own  pushing  —  coat  off 
and  sleeves  rolled  up.  He  did  so,  moreover,  in  the 
downright,  honest  way  we  should  expect  from  him. 


258  HONEST    ABE 

And  some  idea  of  how  it  was  done  —  in  one  direc- 
tion, at  least  —  may  be  gathered  from  an  illuminat- 
ing little  anecdote  told  recently  by  John  W.  Bunn, 
another  fledgling  during  those  early  Springfield  days, 
who  sought  office,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  "under  the 
political  wing"  of  that  same  energetic  leader. 

"A  day  or  two  after  my  first  nomination  for  city 
treasurer,"  writes  Mr.  Bunn,  "I  was  going  uptown 
and  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  ahead  of  me.  He  waited  until 
I  caught  up  and  said  to  me,  'How  are  you  running?' 
I  told  him  I  did  n't  know  how  I  was  running.  Then 
he  said,  '  Have  you  asked  anybody  to  vote  for  you? ' 
I  said  I  had  not.  'Well,'  said  he,  'if  you  don't  think 
enough  of  your  success  to  ask  anybody  to  vote  for 
you,  it  is  probable  they  will  not  do  it,  and  that  you 
will  not  be  elected.'  I  said  to  him,  'Shall  I  ask 
Democrats  to  vote  for  me?'  He  said,  'Yes;  ask 
everybody  to  vote  for  you.'  Just  then  a  well-known 
Democrat  by  the  name  of  Ragsdale  was  coming  up 
the  sidewalk.  Lincoln  said,  'Now,  you  drop  back 
there  and  ask  Mr.  Ragsdale  to  vote  for  you.'  I 
turned  and  fell  in  with  Mr.  Ragsdale,  told  him  of  my 
candidacy,  and  said  I  hoped  he  would  support  me. 
To  my  astonishment,  he  promised  me  that  he  would. 
Mr.  Lincoln  walked  slowly  along  and  fell  in  with  me 
again,  and  said,  'Well,  what  did  Ragsdale  say?  Will 
he  vote  for  you? '  I  said, '  Yes ;  he  told  me  he  would.' 
'Well,  then,'  said  Lincoln,  'you  are  sure  of  two  votes 
at  the  election,  mine  and  Ragsdale's.'  This  was  my 
first  lesson  in  practical  politics,  and  I  received  it 
from  a  high  source."  46 

The  source  may  indeed  be  called  "high,"  from 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      259 

more  than  one  point  of  view.  For  that  term  does  not 
overstate  the  matter  when  it  applies  to  a  politician 
who  could  zealously  press  his  own  interests  or  those 
of  his  party  amidst  the  hurly-burly  of  many  a  closely 
contested  field,  as  Lincoln  did,  and  at  the  same  time 
keep  clear  of  the  mud  in  the  low  places.  Confuting 
a  common  fallacy,  he  demonstrated,  once  for  all, 
that  there  is  no  essential  connection  between  public 
life  and  personal  corruption.  His  career  puts  to 
shame  those  smug  gentlemen  who,  cloistered  in  spot- 
less self-love,  hold  themselves  aloof  from  active  civic 
service,  on  the  plea  that  politics  would  contaminate 
them.  Of  course,  in  their  cases  such  fears  may  not  be 
groundless.  Perhaps  these  respectable  citizens  may 
know  themselves  to  be  weak-kneed.  Perhaps  their 
stumbling  feet  could  not  avoid  the  mire.  In  any 
event,  they  may  as  well  be  reminded  that  merely  to 
keep  clean,  while  shirking  the  work,  is  to  practice  a 
virtue  of  doubtful  value.  This  man,  on  the  other 
hand,  spending  his  best  years  in  the  thick  of  things, 
and  giving  to  each  task  what  the  task  demanded, 
came  through  it  all  unsullied. 

But  to  infer  from  these  activities  that  Lincoln  was 
unduly  obtrusive  in  advancing  his  political  interests 
would  be  wide  of  the  mark.  When  he  did  blow  his 
own  trumpet,  it  struck  a  note  which  gave  no  offense. 
For  from  an  early  day  he  had  mastered  the  art,  so 
difficult  to  acquire,  of  pushing  one's  self  forward 
without  overstepping  the  bounds  of  decorum.  There 
was  an  air  of  reserve  in  his  demeanor  at  the  very 
moment  when  those  rising  fortunes  were  urged  up- 
ward most  eagerly.  In  fact,  whatever  he  did  seemed 


260  HONEST    ABE 

tinged  with  the  lambent  modesty  that  serves,  under 
some  conditions,  to  light  up  rather  than  to  obscure 
true  merit.  It  clearly  helped  Lincoln  to  know  him- 
self and  his  deserts.  One  might  say  that  the  insight 
which  made  the  man  conscious  of  extraordinary 
powers  left  him  painfully  aware,  as  well,  of  their 
limitations.  He  could  look  himself  in  the  face  with 
a  certain  detached  candor  not  often  found  among 
ambitious  politicians.  What  is  more,  he  could  stand 
erect  against  other  men  and  check  off  his  own  short- 
comings. Conceit  in  any  form  —  need  we  add?  — 
cannot  thrive  under  such  clarity  of  vision.  At  the 
same  time,  if  this  faculty  for  seeing  things  squarely 
as  they  are  had  failed  Lincoln,  an  abiding  simplicity 
of  character  —  to  say  nothing  about  an  ever-ready 
sense  of  humor  —  would  doubtless  have  saved  him 
from  any  exaggerated  opinion  of  his  own  impor- 
tance. He  certainly  manifested  no  craving  for  what 
might  be  called  honorary  distinctions.  Purely  for- 
mal or  ornamental  functions,  such  as  the  chairman- 
ship of  a  meeting,  the  leading  part  in  a  civic  cere- 
mony, and  the  like,  were  exceedingly  distasteful  to 
him ;  while  the  master  of  ceremonies  at  some  social 
entertainment,  strutting  about "  drest  in  a  little  brief 
authority,"  aroused  his  good-natured  disdain.  With 
all  the  politician's  fondness  for  public  life  and  public 
office,  he  shrank  from  the  mere  display  of  himself  on 
public  occasions.  At  times,  moreover,  some  of  those 
personal  tributes,  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  profes- 
sional big-wigs,  actually  distressed  him.  He  seemed 
annoyed,  to  cite  an  instance,  by  a  tendency  to 
name  children  for  him  that  set  in  among  certain 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      261 

admirers  long  before  his  fame  had  become  more  than 
local.  And  even  the  honor  of  standing  sponsor  to  a 
whole  community  apparently  brought  this  unassum- 
ing man  no  elation.  For,  when  his  friend  Whitney 
asked  whether  the  town  of  Lincoln  was  named  after 
him,  he  answered  dryly:  "Well,  yes,  I  believe  it  was 
named  after  I  was."  4V 

Obviously,  all  this  is  not  of  a  piece  with  the  oft- 
quoted  pride  that  apes  humility.  It  should  be  de- 
scribed rather  as  the  genuine  modesty  which  had  its 
origin  down  deep  in  the  man's  honest  soul,  in  his  own 
appraisal  of  his  true  value,  made  on  his  own  sensi- 
tive scales.  He  could  not  mislead  himself  or  others 
by  false  pretensions,  during  those  aspiring  times, 
any  more  than  he  had  found  it  possible,  in  the  old 
grocery-store  days,  to  cheat  customers  with  false 
weights.  He  frankly  rated  his  merits  quite  as  low  as 
those  around  him  were  likely  to  have  placed  them; 
and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  even  his  intimates 
had  a  less  exalted  opinion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  than 
in  the  last  analysis  had  Abraham  Lincoln  himself. 

This  freedom  from  egotism  impressed,  sooner  or 
later,  all  who  came  in  contact  with  the  man.  His 
political  associates,  somewhat  after  the  manner,  as 
the  reader  may  remember,  of  his  colleagues  on  cir- 
cuit, bore  witness  to  the  almost  humble  spirit  in 
which  he  ordinarily  conducted  himself.  That  such  a 
course  is  likely  to  win  popular  support,  disarm  criti- 
cism, and  turn  aside  the  shafts  of  envy,  might  lay 
almost  any  politician  so  behaving  open  to  the  sus- 
picion of  assuming  a  pose  —  any  politician  but  a 
Lincoln.  In  his  case,  the  posture  accords  too  closely 


262  HONEST    ABE 

with  what  we  have  seen  of  him  from  other  angles  to 
leave  any  doubt  concerning  its  sincerity.  For  in- 
stance, the  same  kindly  fellowship  that  encouraged 
beginners  in  the  law,  when  they  happened  to  ap- 
proach him  after  he  had  become  a  leader  of  the  bar, 
was  manifested  under  parallel  circumstances  toward 
budding  politicians.  Among  the  most  brilliant  of 
these  may  be  ranked  the  young  German  refugee, 
Carl  Schurz,  who  had  interested  himself  in  Ameri- 
can public  affairs  even  before  he  could  have  been 
eligible  to  American  citizenship.  Having  made  some 
speeches  in  Lincoln's  behalf  during  a  memorable 
canvass,  the  newcomer  improved  an  early  opportun- 
ity for  meeting  the  Sangamon  chief;  and  much  to  his 
surprise,  found  himself  received,  as  he  relates,  with 
"offhand  cordiality,  like  an  old  acquaintance." 

This  must  have  made  a  vivid  impression  on  the 
tyro's  mind.  Recalling  the  interview  toward  the 
close  of  his  life,  Mr.  Schurz  tells  us,  with  renewed 
wonder,  how  unreservedly  Lincoln  discussed  the 
campaign,  and  then  goes  on  to  say :  "When,  in  a  tone 
of  perfect  ingenuousness,  he  asked  me  —  a  young 
beginner  in  politics  —  what  I  thought  about  this  and 
that,  I  should  have  felt  myself  very  much  honored 
by  his  confidence  had  he  permitted  me  to  regard  him 
as  a  great  man.  But  he  talked  in  so  simple  and  fa- 
miliar a  strain,  and  his  manner  and  homely  phrase 
were  so  absolutely  free  from  any  semblance  of  self- 
consciousness  or  pretension  to  superiority,  that  I 
soon  felt  as  if  I  had  known  him  all  my  life  and  we 
had  long  been  close  friends."  48 

Among  strangers,  Lincoln  carried  himself,  it  is 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      263 

perhaps  needless  to  say,  equally  free  from  any  sug- 
gestion of  the  grand  air.  His  commonplace  —  at 
times  uncouth  —  appearance,  together  with  his  un- 
assuming ways,  gave  the  chance  comer  no  hint  of 
the  man's  importance,  even  after  he  had  obtained 
some  measure  of  fame  beyond  the  State  border.  On 
more  than  one  occasion  he  might  have  exclaimed,  as 
did  the  famous  Achaean  general  when  they  found  him 
meekly  cutting  up  firewood  for  the  hostess  of  Me- 
gara:  "  I  am  paying  the  penalty  of  my  ugly  looks." 

So  different,  in  truth,  was  Lincoln's  manner  from 
the  breezy,  bumptious  swagger  not  seldom  seen 
among  the  public  personages  of  his  day,  that  only  an 
observer  of  rare  discernment  would  have  taken  him, 
at  first  glance,  for  a  prominent  politician.  Even 
nimble-witted  members  of  the  guild  themselves 
"smelt  no  royalty,"  as  he  once  quaintly  expressed  it, 
in  his  presence.  And  one  of  them  has  handed  down 
an  amusing  tale  which  relates  how  the  big  man's 
modest  bearing  hoaxed  a  brace  of  jocund  statesmen 
to  the  top  of  their  bent.  Here  is  the  story,  as 
Thomas  H.  Nelson  of  Terre  Haute,  tells  it  on  him- 
self:— 

"In  the  spring  of  1849  Judge  Abram  Hammond, 
who  was  afterwards  Governor  of  Indiana,  and  I  ar- 
ranged to  go  from  Terre  Haute  to  Indianapolis  in 
the  stage-coach.  An  entire  day  was  usually  con- 
sumed in  the  journey.  By  daybreak  the  stage  had 
arrived  from  the  West,  and  as  we  stepped  in  we  dis- 
covered that  the  entire  back  seat  was  occupied  by  a 
long,  lank  individual,  whose  head  seemed  to  pro- 
trude from  one  end  of  the  coach  and  his  feet  from 


264  HONEST    ABE 

the  other.  He  was  the  sole  occupant,  and  was  sleep- 
ing soundly.  Hammond  slapped  him  familiarly  on 
the  shoulder,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  chartered  the 
stage  for  the  day.  The  stranger,  now  wide  awake, 
responded,  'Certainly  not';  and  at  once  took  the 
front  seat,  politely  surrendering  to  us  the  place  of 
honor  and  comfort.  We  took  in  our  traveling  com- 
panion at  a  glance.  A  queer,  odd-looking  fellow  he 
was,  dressed  in  a  well-worn  and  ill-fitting  suit  of 
bombazine,  without  vest  or  cravat,  and  a  twenty- 
five-cent  palm  hat  on  the  back  of  his  head.  His 
very  prominent  features  in  repose  seemed  dull  and 
expressionless.  Regarding  him  as  a  good  subject  for 
merriment  we  perpetrated  several  jokes.  He  took 
them  all  with  the  utmost  innocence  and  good-nature, 
and  joined  in  the  laugh,  although  at  his  own  expense. 
"At  noon  we  stopped  at  a  wayside  hostelry  for 
dinner.  We  invited  him  to  eat  with  us,  and  he 
approached  the  table  as  if  he  considered  it  a  great 
honor.  He  sat  with  about  half  his  person  on  a  small 
chair,  and  held  his  hat  under  his  arm  during  the 
meal.  Resuming  our  journey  after  dinner,  conver- 
sation drifted  into  a  discussion  of  the  comet,  a  sub- 
ject that  was  then  agitating  the  scientific  world,  in 
which  the  stranger  took  the  deepest  interest.  He 
made  many  startling  suggestions  and  asked  many 
questions.  We  amazed  him  with  'words  of  learned 
length  and  thundering  sound.'  After  an  astounding 
display  of  wordy  pyrotechnics  the  dazed  and  bewil- 
dered stranger  asked,  'What  is  going  to  be  the  up- 
shot of  this  comet  business?'  I  replied  that  I  was 
not  certain,  in  fact,  I  differed  from  most  scientists 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      265 

and  philosophers,  and  was  inclined  to  the  opinion 
that  the  world  would  follow  the  darned  thing  off! 

"Late  in  the  evening  we  reached  Indianapolis, 
and  hurried  to  Browning's  Hotel,  losing  sight  of  the 
stranger  altogether.  We  retired  to  our  room  to  brush 
and  wash  away  the  dust  of  the  journey.  In  a  few 
minutes  I  descended  to  the  portico,  and  there  de- 
scried our  long,  gloomy  fellow-traveler  in  the  center 
of  an  admiring  group  of  lawyers,  among  whom  were 
Judges  McLean  and  Huntington,  Edward  Hanni- 
gan,  Albert  S.  White,  and  Richard  W.  Thompson, 
who  seemed  to  be  amused  and  interested  in  a  story 
he  was  telling.  I  enquired  of  Browning,  the  land- 
lord, who  he  was.  'Abraham  Lincoln  of  Illinois,  a 
member  of  Congress,'  was  the  response.  I  was 
thunderstruck  at  the  announcement.  I  hastened 
upstairs  and  told  Hammond  the  startling  news,  and 
together  we  emerged  from  the  hotel  by  a  back  door 
and  went  down  an  alley  to  another  house,  thus 
avoiding  further  contact  with  our  now  distinguished 
fellow- traveler."  49 

As  these  two  wags  sneak  sheepishly  away  from 
their  recent  butt,  they  present  a  comical  reminder  of 
that  time-honored  aphorism:  "The  world  receives 
an  unknown  person  according  to  his  appearance;  it 
takes  leave  of  him  according  to  his  merits."  True, 
our  crestfallen  Hoosiers  did  not  themselves  sense  the 
worth  concealed  under  Lincoln's  homespun  man- 
ners; yet  for  this  the  man  who  had  so  neatly  gulled 
them  could  hardly  be  blamed.  He  paid  the  merry 
jesters  in  their  own  coin,  so  to  say;  and  if  they  failed 
to  notice  the  twinkle  of  his  keen  gray  eyes  as  he 


266  HONEST    ABE 

made  change,  no  one  was  at  fault  but  themselves. 
The  ethics  of  practical  joking  had  been  observed 
fairly  enough.  At  all  events,  the  gentlemen  from 
Indiana,  so  far  as  is  known,  set  up  no  claim  to  the 
contrary. 

Lincoln's  energies  were  not  confined,  however,  to 
such  encounters.  Within  the  party  itself  occasion- 
ally arose  contests  between  rival  leaders  that  dif- 
fered widely  from  the  usual  election  campaigns 
against  the  common  enemy;  and  it  is  of  interest  to 
see  how  "Honest  Abe,"  under  these  more  delicate 
circumstances,  conducted  himself.  A  typical  in- 
stance was  that  of  his  canvass  for  Congress.  This 
began  as  early  as  1842  when,  upon  the  completion 
of  a  fourth  term  in  the  Illinois  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, he  declined  the  proffered  renomination,  but 
not  because  he  wished  to  retire  from  public  life. 
"His  ambition,"  as  one  intimate  friend  declared, 
"was  a  little  engine  that  knew  no  rest."  It  seemed 
always  speeding  him  toward  higher  levels.  A  seat  in 
the  National  House  had  now  become  his  goal;  and 
with  characteristic  directness,  he  announced  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  the  promotion.  An  attempt,  ob- 
viously not  so  direct,  was  made  to  turn  him  aside; 
for  we  find  among  his  letters  this  word  of  warning, 
addressed  at  the  time  to  a  correspondent  in  Cass 
County:  "If  you  should  hear  any  one  say  that 
Lincoln  don't  want  to  go  to  Congress,  I  wish  you, 
as  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  would  tell  him  you 
have  reason  to  believe  he  is  mistaken.  The  truth  is 
I  would  like  to  go  very  much."  50 

In  those  days  the  Springfield  District,  as  it  was 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      267 

sometimes  called,  had  become  a  Whig  stronghold  to 
such  a  degree  that  whoever  received  the  endorse- 
ment of  the  party  there  on  the  Congressional  ticket 
might  well  feel  assured  of  his  election.  Naturally  the 
prospect  attracted  other  ambitious  young  politicians 
besides  Lincoln.  He  found  himself  strongly  opposed 
for  the  nomination  by  Edward  Dickinson  Baker,  of 
his  own  county,  and  General  John  J.  Hardin,  of 
Black  Hawk  War  fame,  from  Morgan  County.  The 
preliminary  canvass  was  uncommonly  warm.  It 
appears  to  have  reached  a  white  heat,  at  almost  the 
very  outset,  between  Lincoln  and  Baker  in  their 
struggle  for  the  control  of  the  delegation  which  San- 
gamon  should  send  to  the  nominating  convention. 
Both  men  were  popular,  but  Baker's  longer  resi- 
dence in  the  State,  his  charm  of  manner,  his  dash- 
ing personality,  and  his  remarkable  talent  for  im- 
promptu oratory  gave  him  an  advantage,  which 
enthusiastic  friends  sought  still  further  to  improve 
by  tactics  manifestly  open  to  criticism,  especially 
when  employed  in  a  party  contest.  For,  strange  to 
relate,  a  personal  campaign  of  an  abusive  nature  was 
waged  against  the  man  from  New  Salem.  His  recent 
faithful  leadership  on  the  floor  of  the  Legislature 
had,  for  the  moment,  in  some  quarters  at  least,  ap- 
parently been  forgotten;  while  his  marriage  during 
the  year  to  Mary  Todd,  whose  religious  affiliations 
—  unlike  those  of  the  Bakers  —  were  not  with  the 
potent  Campbellite  Church,  became  by  cunningly 
contrived  suggestion  an  adverse  issue  of  seeming  im- 
portance. Moreover,  his  own  alleged  irreligion, 
slyly  hinted  at,  a  duel  that  had  been  talked  of  but 


268  HONEST    ABE 

had  never  been  fought,51  an  unpopular  temperance 
address  recently  delivered,  and,  above  all,  his  con- 
nection through  the  young  wife  with  her  prominent, 
perhaps  too  self-satisfied,  relations,  were  severally 
urged  in  various  directions  as  good  reasons  for  with- 
holding the  desired  support. 

What  particularly  pained  Lincoln  was  this  last 
count  in  the  indictment.  For  one  who  had  so  re- 
cently been  a  "friendless,  uneducated,  penniless  boy 
working  on  a  flat-boat  at  ten  dollars  per  month," 
to  be  "put  down"  —  we  are  quoting  his  own  pro- 
test —  "as  the  candidate  of  pride,  wealth,  and  aris- 
tocratic family  distinction,"  must  have  felt  odd 
beyond  measure.52  It  is  not  surprising  that,  with  all 
his  political  acumen,  he  was  at  a  loss  for  an  adequate 
reply.  What  reply,  indeed,  can  one  make  to  such  a 
charge !  He  tried  to  laugh  it  off,  meeting  the  story 
of  those  high-bred  relatives  with  the  whimsical  re- 
mark: "Well,  that  sounds  strange  to  me.  I  do  not 
remember  of  but  one  who  ever  came  to  see  me,  and 
while  he  was  in  town  he  was  accused  of  stealing  a 
jew's-harp."  53 

Still  the  canard  persisted,  though  the  fact  that  it 
ever  received  serious  attention  must  be  counted 
among  the  mysteries  of  Illinois  politics;  unless  per- 
haps a  faint  suggestion  of  an  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  Lincoln's  own  demeanor.  He  was,  it  is  true, 
a  commoner,  a  man  of  the  people,  if  there  ever  has 
been  one  in  American  public  affairs.  His  democratic 
ways,  unpretentious  garb,  and  homely  fashion  of 
speech  were  as  truly  expressive  of  the  man  as  were 
his  sympathetic  dealings,  in  all  the  essentials  of  life, 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      269 

with  the  plain  citizens  around  him.  But  he  neither 
flattered  them  nor  catered  to  their  prejudices.  Lin- 
coln was  no  demagogue.  Coming  upon  the  scene 
with  a  generation  of  pioneers  whose  antipathy  to- 
ward the  so-called  aristocrats  naturally  had  its  cor- 
responding reaction  in  a  fondness  for  men  of  their 
own  kind,  he  made  it  a  point,  nevertheless,  to  ask 
for  support  wholly  on  his  merits ;  and  practiced  none 
of  those  crude  arts  whereby  politicians  of  that  day 
too  often  courted  popular  favor.54  In  fact,  he  went 
at  times  as  far  the  other  way,  and  bluntly  declined 
so  to  cheapen  himself. 

A  case  in  point  occurred  on  the  occasion  of  his 
address  before  an  agricultural  society,  when  he  said : 
"I  presume  I  am  not  expected  to  employ  the  time 
assigned  me  in  the  mere  flattery  of  the  farmers  as 
a  class.  My  opinion  of  them  is  that,  in  proportion 
to  numbers,  they  are  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
other  people.  In  the  nature  of  things  they  are  more 
numerous  than  any  other  class;  and  I  believe  there 
really  are  more  attempts  at  flattering  them  than  any 
other,  the  reason  for  which  I  cannot  perceive  unless 
it  be  that  they  can  cast  more  votes  than  any  other. 
On  reflection,  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  there  is  not 
cause  of  suspicion  against  you  in  selecting  me,  in 
some  sort  a  politician  and  in  no  sort  a  farmer,  to 
address  you."  55 

These  words  —  we  must  add  —  were  uttered 
some  years  later,  but  they  nicely  illustrate  the 
speaker's  bearing  throughout  his  political  career. 
The  compelling  candor  which  led  him  to  speak  so 
was,  in  truth,  the  very  essence  of  the  man.  He  could 


270  HONEST    ABE 

not  do  otherwise.  And  therein,  perhaps,  lay  some 
explanation  of  why  it  was  difficult  for  him,  during 
this  congressional  contest,  to  meet  the  charge  of 
having  joined  the  so-called  privileged  class,  —  par- 
ticularly as  the  accusation  came  from  members  of 
his  own  party.66 

That  Baker  himself  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
misconduct  of  these  overzealous  partisans,  Lincoln 
refused  to  believe.57  Still  he  could  not  close  his  eyes 
to  the  inroads  which  their  attacks  made  upon  his 
strength  in  the  county.  And  when  the  Sangamon 
Whigs  met,  in  the  spring  of  1843,  to  elect  delegates 
for  the  District  Convention,  Baker  was  clearly  their 
choice.  The  meeting  so  voted.  But  its  confidence 
in  the  rejected  candidate  was  evinced,  to  a  note- 
worthy extent,  by  his  selection  as  a  member  of  the 
delegation,  instructed  to  cast  Sangamon's  ballot  at 
the  convention  for  his  successful  opponent.  This 
placed  Lincoln  in  an  embarrassing  position ;  and  he 
tried,  though  without  avail,  to  be  excused.  Com- 
menting on  the  singular  occurrence  to  his  absent 
friend  Speed,  he  wrote :  "The  meeting,  in  spite  of  my 
attempt  to  decline  it,  appointed  me  one  of  the  dele- 
gates; so  that  in  getting  Baker  the  nomination,  I 
shall  be  fixed  a  good  deal  like  a  fellow  who  is  made 
a  groomsman  to  a  man  that  has  cut  him  out  and  is 
marrying  his  own  dear  'gal.'"  58 

There  was  this  difference,  however.  The  grooms- 
man usually  renounces  his  hopes  at  the  church  door; 
whereas  Lincoln,  for  a  time  at  least  after  the  meet- 
ing, still  considered  himself,  in  some  degree,  a  can- 
didate. Expecting  his  old  neighbors  in  the  New 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      271 

Salem-Petersburg  vicinage  to  instruct  a  Menard 
County  delegation  for  him,  he  figured  out  a  combin- 
ation whereby  they  might,  under  certain  conditions, 
cast  the  deciding  votes  in  the  convention.  "It  is 
truly  gratifying  to  me,"  he  wrote  Martin  M.  Morris, 
one  of  these  supporters,  "to  learn  that  while  the 
people  of  Sangamon  have  cast  me  off,  my  old  friends 
of  Menard,  who  have  known  me  longest  and  best, 
stick  to  me." 

After  outlining  the  situation,  with  the  terse,  firm 
strokes  of  a  skilled  politician,  he  continued:  "You 
say  you  shall  instruct  your  delegates  for  me,  unless 
I  object.  I  certainly  shall  not  object.  That  would 
be  too  pleasant  a  compliment  for  me  to  tread  in 
the  dust.  And  besides,  if  anything  should  happen 
(which,  however,  is  not  probable)  by  which  Baker 
should  be  thrown  out  of  the  fight,  I  would  be  at  lib- 
erty to  accept  the  nomination  if  I  could  get  it.  I  do, 
however,  feel  myself  bound  not  to  hinder  him  in  any 
way  from  getting  the  nomination.  I  should  despise 
myself  were  I  to  attempt  it.  I  think,  then,  it  would 
be  proper  for  your  meeting  to  appoint  three  dele- 
gates, and  to  instruct  them  to  go  for  some  one  as  a 
first  choice,  some  one  else  as  a  second,  and  perhaps 
some  one  as  a  third;  and  if  in  those  instructions  I 
were  named  as  the  first  choice,  it  would  gratify  me 
very  much."  59 

This  letter  furnishes  another  revelation  of  how 
tight  a  grip  Lincoln's  ambition,  carrying  him  along 
at  top  speed,  had  upon  his  movements;  and  by  that 
same  token,  of  how  tight  a  grip  he  meant  to  keep,  in 
any  event,  upon  the  restraining  brake,  which  was  so 


272  HONEST    ABE 

rarely  allowed  to  leave  his  watchful  hand.  Whether 
he  could  have  maintained  his  moral  equilibrium, 
however,  in  the  District  Convention,  as  a  delegate 
instructed  for  one  candidate  while  he  permitted  his 
friends  to  support  another  candidate,  and  that  can- 
didate himself,  raises,  under  all  the  circumstances, 
a  delicate  question  in  political  ethics.  Happily, 
Lincoln  was  not  called  upon  to  try  it  out.  By  the 
time  the  delegates  gathered  at  Pekin,  he  and  Baker 
were  both  outdistanced  by  General  Hardin,  who 
promptly  became  the  choice  of  a  far  from  harmoni- 
ous convention. 

Then  ensued  an  incident  which,  besides  having  a 
controlling  influence  toward  the  shaping  of  local 
politics  for  some  years  to  come,  caused  controver- 
sies later  of  more  than  local  importance.  This  is  how 
it  came  about.  No  sooner  had  the  vote  been  taken 
than  Lincoln  walked  across  the  room  to  James  M. 
Ruggles,  one  of  the  Hardin  delegates,  and  asked  him 
whether  he  would  favor  a  resolution  recommending 
Baker  for  the  succeeding  congressional  term.  Rug- 
gles, who  was  fond  of  that  gentleman,  readily  con- 
sented, so  Lincoln  said :  "You  prepare  the  resolution, 
I  will  support  it,  and  I  think  we  can  pass  it."  60 

The  motion  is  said  to  have  "created  a  profound 
sensation,  especially  with  the  friends  of  Hardin." 
Some  of  them  warmly  objected,  but  it  was  passed, 
nevertheless,  by  a  very  close  vote.  The  proposition 
should,  indeed,  have  been  well  received.  It  belonged 
to  that  class  of  convention  devices  which  is  some- 
times designated  as  "good  politics."  The  contest 
had  stirred  up  much  feeling,  and  Lincoln,  like  the 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      273 

alert  party  leader  that  he  was,  took  this  means  of 
placating  a  disgruntled  faction.  "So  far  as  I  can 
judge  from  present  appearances,"  he  declared,  "we 
shall  have  no  split  or  trouble  about  the  matter.  All 
will  be  harmony."  61  And  when  the  nominee  wrote  a 
letter,  after  the  convention,  expressing  some  doubt 
as  to  whether  the  Whigs  of  Sangamon  would  sup- 
port him,  Lincoln  replied:  "You  may,  at  once,  dis- 
miss all  fears  on  that  subject.  We  have  already  re- 
solved to  make  a  particular  effort  to  give  you  the 
very  largest  majority  possible  in  our  county.  From 
this,  no  Whig  of  the  county  dissents.  We  have  many 
objects  for  doing  it.  We  make  it  a  matter  of  honor 
and  pride  to  do  it;  we  do  it,  because  we  love  the 
Whig  cause;  we  do  it,  because  we  like  you  person- 
ally; and  last,  we  wish  to  convince  you,  that  we  do 
not  bear  that  hatred  to  Morgan  County,  that  you 
people  have  so  long  seemed  to  imagine.  You  will  see 
by  the  Journal  of  this  week,  that  we  propose,  upon 
pain  of  losing  a  Barbecue,  to  give  you  twice  as  great 
a  majority  in  this  county  as  you  shall  receive  in  your 
own.  I  got  up  the  proposal."  62 

This  magnanimous  treatment  of  Hardin,  like 
the  resolution  in  Baker's  favor,  is  noteworthy.  Yet 
here  again  —  of  a  truth,  in  neither  case  —  did  Lin- 
coln wholly  neglect  his  own  aspirations.  Though  he 
regarded  both  these  men  with  sincere  good- will,  and 
stepped  aside  for  them  with  unruffled  temper,  it  was 
in  the  hope  that  his  turn  would  come  next.  Some 
of  the  party  leaders,  in  fact,  eventually  worked  out 
an  arrangement  whereby  John  J.  Hardin,  Edward 
Dickinson  Baker,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  Stephen 


274  HONEST    ABE 

Trigg  Logan  succeeded  one  another  in  the  Whig 
nomination  of  the  district,  for  a  single  congressional 
term  each.  That  this  bargain  or  deal  —  to  use  fa- 
miliar political  expressions  —  existed  has  been  ve- 
hemently denied.  And  in  the  nature  of  such  affairs, 
it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  there  was  a  definite 
agreement  to  which  the  parties  in  interest  gave  their 
formal  approval.  The  Hardin  following,  for  one,  ap- 
pears to  have  acquiesced  unwillingly,  if  indeed  it 
actually  assented  at  all.  Still,  no  less  an  authority 
than  Lincoln  himself  tells  us  of  "an  understanding 
among  Whig  friends,"  whereby  each  of  these  men 
received  the  nomination  in  turn.63  And  this  under- 
standing, in  part  at  least,  had  its  public  ratification, 
if  not  its  origin,  as  we  have  seen,  with  his  resolution 
endorsing  Baker.  Although  politicians  usually  con- 
ceal such  transactions,  because  they  are  looked  upon 
by  the  voters  with  disfavor,  and  although  some 
through-thick-and-thin  eulogists,  trembling  for  the 
fair  fame  of  their  hero,  have  refused  to  believe  that 
Lincoln  did  anything  at  this  point  which  savored  of 
intrigue,  he  himself  manifestly  made  no  secret  of  the 
matter  nor  of  his  hand  in  it.  A  thoroughgoing  candi- 
date from  start  to  finish,  this  man,  honorable  as  he 
was,  played  his  game  according  to  the  standards  of 
the  aggressive  political  school  in  which  he  had  been 
bred.  But  he  played  it  openly.  He  saw  no  harm  in 
that  group  of  aspirants  "making  a  slate,"  as  the 
process  is  sometimes  called;  and  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, neither  do  we. 

The  Sangamon  chief,  true  to  his  pledge,  loyally 
supported  the  nominee  of  the  convention.   General 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      275 

Hardin,  triumphant  at  the  polls,  went  to  Congress. 
And  when,  by  reason  of  a  change  in  the  time  for 
holding  the  next  election,  it  became  necessary,  dur- 
ing the  following  year,  to  name  his  successor,  he  gave 
way  in  Baker's  favor,  as  the  Pekin  resolution  had 
provided.  Naturally  Lincoln,  the  father  of  that 
measure,  did  likewise.  In  fact,  he  worked  no  less 
faithfully  for  rival  number  two  than  he  had  for  rival 
number  one,  and  Baker  was  duly  chosen.64  Then  at 
last,  in  1846,  came  Lincoln's  turn.  Expecting  to 
reap  the  reward  of  his  patience,  he  struck  out  vig- 
orously for  the  nomination.  But  to  his  chagrin, 
Hardin,  ready  to  make  the  race  for  another  term, 
threatened  again  to  block  the  way;  while  Judge 
Logan,  the  remaining  claimant  on  the  slate,  had 
also  entered  the  field,  demanding  precedence  over 
Lincoln  on  the  ground  of  seniority  as  well  as  of  valu- 
able services  to  the  party.  Whether  this  latter  can- 
didature was  entirely  sincere,  or  whether  it  should 
be  deemed  one  of  those  back-firing  devices  to  head 
off  other  aspirants,  so  often  employed  by  political 
strategists,  cannot,  at  this  late  day,  be  determined. 
True,  the  dissolution  of  partnership  at  law  between 
Logan  and  Lincoln,  several  years  before,  had  been 
due,  in  a  degree  at  least,  to  the  conflicting  congres- 
sional ambitions  of  its  members.  Still,  nothing  that 
then  took  place  was  rasping  enough,  so  far  as  is 
known,  to  keep  them  from  entering  into  an  "under- 
standing" for  their  mutual  benefit.  At  all  events, 
Logan  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  made  a  very  vigor- 
ous start  and,  after  a  brief  reconnoissance  of  the 
district,  he  withdrew  gracefully  in  Lincoln's  favor. 


276  HONEST    ABE 

Hardin  was  not  so  easily  disposed  of.  Denying 
that  there  had  been  any  agreement  personally  on 
his  part  to  rest  content  with  one  term,  he  declared 
himself  betimes  a  candidate  for  another  nomination. 
Lincoln's  rejoinder  was  the  maxim,  —  "Turn  about 
is  fair  play."  He  called  this  his  "only  argument," 
and  proceeded  in  effect  to  make  it  the  slogan  of  an 
energetic  campaign.  A  less  inspiring  issue  on  which 
to  ask  for  political  support  is  not  often  presented. 
Yet  this  was  the  issue,  and  Lincoln  candidly  said  so. 
With  a  freedom  from  the  customary  cant  of  "public 
servants"  that  is  really  refreshing,  he  canvassed  the 
party  on  personal  grounds,  but  without  personali- 
ties. His  supporters  were  cautioned  against  saying 
anything  unkind  about  Hardin ;  and  when  he  himself 
made  any  reference  to  his  adversary,  it  was  in  terms 
of  friendly  appreciation.  Lincoln  wanted  that  office. 
He  wanted  it  badly.  But  his  ever-present  sense  of 
fairness  saved  him  from  resentment  toward  the 
Bakers  and  Hardins  who  wanted  it,  too.  They  were 
entitled  to  a  place  in  the  sun.  And  even  the  fact 
that  one  who  had  basked  in  its  warmth  for  a  season 
was  trying  now  to  elbow  him  back  when  his  turn 
came,  did  not  ruffle  the  man's  good  humor.  Yet  he 
stood  his  ground  firmly,  while  insisting,  with  win- 
some naivet^,  on  "a  fair  shake."  So  when  General 
Hardin  made  a  crafty  suggestion  that  the  candidates 
should  agree  respectively  to  "remain  in  their  own 
counties,"  Lincoln  promptly  declined,  with  the  obvi- 
ous explanation:  "It  seems  to  me  that  on  reflection 
you  will  see,  the  fact  of  your  having  been  in  Congress 
has,  in  various  ways,  so  spread  your  name  in  the  dis- 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      277 

trict,  as  to  give  you  a  decided  advantage  in  such  a 
stipulation." 

His  reasons,  given  in  the  same  letter,  for  refusing 
to  walk  into  the  general's  other  cunningly  contrived 
pitfalls,  were  equally  cogent;  while  the  temper  of  the 
missive,  as  a  whole,  may  be  inferred  from  the  pretty 
little  apology:  "I  have  always  been  in  the  habit  of 
acceding  to  almost  any  proposal  that  a  friend  would 
make,  and  I  am  truly  sorry  that  I  cannot  in  this."  65 

Hardin,  on  his  part,  was  apparently  not  so  ami- 
able. The  general's  supporters  were  allowed  to  assail 
Lincoln  in  somewhat  the  same  manner  that  Baker's 
friends  had  done  three  years  before.  Indeed,  they 
may  have  been  even  less  scrupulous.  For  one  of  Lin- 
coln's youthful  lieutenants,  G.  W.  Harris,  tells  us 
how,  disheartened  by  their  methods,  he  went  to  his 
chief  in  the  heat  of  the  canvass,  and  declared  that  it 
was  useless  to  proceed  any  further  unless  the  object 
of  these  assaults  was  willing  to  adopt  similar  tactics. 
Without  any  show  of  feeling,  Lincoln  replied:  "  Gib- 
son, I  want  to  be  nominated ;  I  should  like  very  much 
to  go  to  Congress ;  but  unless  I  can  get  there  by  fair 
means,  I  shall  not  go.  If  it  depends  on  some  other 
course,  I  will  stay  at  home."  66 

' '  That  settled  it, ' '  Harris  adds.  But  things  hardly 
went  as  he  had  predicted.  Not  long  thereafter  his 
leader's  scruples  were  vindicated,  on  even  the  poli- 
tician's narrow  ground,  by  Hardin's  withdrawal  from 
the  contest,  in  a  generous  letter,  which  left  the  field 
to  our  Springfield  friend  unopposed.  So  it  came  to 
pass  that  when  the  Whig  District  Convention  met 
early  in  May,  1846,  the  name  of  this  sole  remaining 


278  HONEST    ABE 

candidate  was  duly  presented  by  Judge  Logan  and 
Lincoln  received  a  unanimous  nomination. 

The  Democrats  put  forward  as  their  candidate 
the  well-known  Methodist  circuit-rider,  Peter  Cart- 
wright.  He  gave  promise  of  making  a  formidable 
antagonist.  Few  men  had  more  friends  throughout 
the  district,  and  indeed,  throughout  the  State.  His 
robust  ministry,  as  he  traveled  on  horseback  un- 
daunted by  frontier  hardships  from  place  to  place, 
brought  him  into  intimate,  at  times  even  sacred, 
relations  with  the  people.  They  cherished,  in  their 
rough  way,  a  fondness  for  the  man  whose  piety 
and  never-failing  human  sympathy  had  made  him 
through  all  the  shifting  years,  whether  at  wed- 
dings, christenings,  sick-beds,  or  funerals,  the  de- 
pendable partner  of  their  joys  and  their  sorrows. 
A  preacher,  moreover,  of  the  church-militant,  he 
compelled  respect  among  these  sturdy  pioneers  by 
his  physical,  no  less  than  by  his  spiritual,  qualities. 
As  became  one  who  patrolled  in  autocratic  fashion 
"the  country  of  superior  men,"  he  was  wont,  when 
occasion  served,  to  pound  out  a  sermon  or  knock  out 
a  service-disturbing  brawler,  with  equal  force,  and 
—  if  the  truth  must  be  told  —  with  equal  relish. 
But  the  aggressive  elements  in  Cartwright's  make-up 
found  still  freer  vent  on  the  several  occasions  when 
he  sought  to  transmute  all  this  popularity  into  votes. 
For  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  the  high  priests  in 
Israel,  the  "Apostle  of  the  West,"  as  he  was  some- 
times called,  aspired  to  combine  religion  with  state- 
craft. A  Jacksonian  Democrat  of  the  uncompromis- 
ing type,  his  politics  like  his  theology  belonged  to  the 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      279 

hard-shell  variety;  and  few  campaigners  could  give 
a  better  account  of  themselves  on  the  stump.  If 
rugged  eloquence  failed  to  produce  the  desired  effect, 
a  certain  nimble-witted  humor  might  be  depended 
on  to  carry  the  day  for  him.  He  had,  in  fact,  been 
elected  or,  more  precisely  speaking,  reflected,  to  the 
State  Legislature  when  Lincoln  suffered  his  first,  his 
only,  rebuff  at  the  polls,  fourteen  years  before;  and 
with  the  two  men  now  pitted  against  each  other 
again  —  this  time  on  a  larger  field  —  the  Democrats 
naturally  expected  to  bring  about  a  repetition  of 
that  defeat. 

But  the  Lincoln  who  faced  Cartwright  in  1846 
was  a  different  adversary  from  the  comparatively 
unknown  novice  who  had  gone  down  before  the  fa- 
mous preacher  in  1832.  Since  then  the  younger  man 
must  have  learned  many  practical  lessons  in  the 
school  of  politics,  and  learned  them  well,  for  his  con- 
gressional canvass  is  described  as  a  model  of  skillful 
electioneering.  It  left  unturned,  in  all  the  district, 
no  stone  beneath  which  might  lurk  a  favorable 
vote ;  while  it  met,  with  similar  alertness,  every  issue 
raised  by  the  enemy,  or  more  accurately  speaking, 
every  issue  but  one  —  that  of  religion. 

The  charge  of  impiety,  covertly  made  in  former 
primary  contests,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Lincoln's  own 
Whig  associates,  was  now  publicly  urged  against 
him  with  far  greater  earnestness  by  his  Democratic 
opponents.  What  ground  they  had  for  their  accu- 
sations cannot  conveniently  be  considered  at  this 
point.  The  assailed  candidate  himself  shrewdly 
refrained  from  taking  any  public  notice  of  the 


280  HONEST    ABE 

matter,  and  he  impressed  upon  his  lieutenants  the 
wisdom  of  exercising  similar  forbearance.  Here  was 
one  of  those  rare  junctures  in  which  your  true  leader 
may  be  recognized,  not  so  much  by  what  he  does  as 
by  what  he  omits  to  do.  Lincoln  confidently  left 
this  issue  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  They  have 
on  repeated  occasions  been  known  to  meet  it  with 
appropriate  vigor,  yet  nearly  every  generation  of 
politicians  must  be  taught  the  lesson  anew.  The 
man  who  lays  Religion  by  the  heels,  and  drags  her 
through  the  mire  of  a  political  campaign  for  the 
votes  that  may  adhere  to  the  soiled  vestments,  usu- 
ally bends  so  low  over  his  narrow  course  that  he  does 
not  see,  until  too  late,  the  shocked  devotees,  on  the 
one  hand,  deserting  him  because  he  has  profaned  a 
scared  thing,  nor  the  indignant  citizens  on  the  other, 
turning  from  him  because  he  would  obtrude  sec- 
tarian influences  where  they  have  no  business  — 
in  purely  secular  affairs.  Even  the  popularity  of  a 
Cartwright  sags  under  such  a  strain.  Moreover,  his 
sterling  character  gave  him  no  countervailing  ad- 
vantage in  that  particular  contest.  For  when  it 
came  to  the  weighing  of  these  opposing  candidates 
—  cleric  against  skeptic,  saint  against  sinner  —  by 
almost  any  voter's  own  work-a-day  standards,  the 
rectitude  of  Lincoln's  life  at  the  bar,  no  less  than  the 
notable  honesty  of  his  politics,  dressed  the  balance 
between  the  two  champions,  so  far  as  practical 
ethics  went,  to  a  nicety.  This  left  the  revulsion  from 
bigotry  that  touched  broad-minded  men  in  both 
parties,  together  with  the  normal  preponderance  of 
the  Whigs  and  the  superior  campaigning  tactics 


HONESTY    IN    POLITICS      281 

of  their  leader,  to  tip  the  scales  finally  in  his  favor.  As 
the  canvass  drew  near  its  close,  not  a  few  of  the 
Democrats  are  said  to  have  looked  upon  him  with 
kindly  eyes.  But  party  feelings  ran  so  strong  in 
those  days  that  to  support  a  candidate  on  the  oppos- 
ing side  involved  a  wrench  to  cherished  traditions 
from  which  these  alien  well-wishers,  these  friends 
the  enemy,  naturally,  for  the  most  part,  recoiled. 
One  of  them,  doubtless  a  typical  instance,  coming  to 
Lincoln  in  such  a  dilemma,  declared  himself  willing 
to  cast  a  Whig  ballot  if  it  were  needed  to  defeat 
Cartwright.  The  sacrifice,  he  thought,  should  be 
required  only  in  the  event  of  a  very  close  struggle; 
and  the  Whig  captain,  accepting  this  view,  agreed 
to  let  him  know  how  the  contest  stood.  Accordingly, 
right  before  election-day,  Lincoln  having  made  one 
of  those  clever  forecasts  for  which  he  was  noted, 
released  his  provisional  recruit  with  the  announce- 
ment: "I  have  got  the  preacher,  and  don't  want 
your  vote."  67 

He  certainly  did  have  the  preacher.  When  re- 
turns came  in,  it  was  found  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Democrats,  setting  public  spirit  above  parti- 
san prejudice,  after  all,  had  given  their  adherence  to 
the  Whig  nominee.  Lincoln  led  Cartwright  at  the 
polls  by  1511  votes.  How  splendid  a  victory  this 
was,  and  how  much  of  it  may  be  credited  to  Demo- 
cratic defections,  will  be  understood  when  it  is  re- 
called that  the  same  district  had,  in  the  preceding 
presidential  campaign,  given  electors  for  Henry 
Clay,  the  popular  Whig  standard-bearer,  'a  plural- 
ity of  but  914.  "Lincoln's  election  by  the  large 


282  HONEST    ABE 

majority  he  received,"  said  Governor  Reynolds,  com- 
menting on  the  congressional  contest  some  years 
later,  "was  the  finest  compliment  personally  and  the 
highest  political  endorsement  any  man  could  expect, 
and  such  as  I  have  never  seen  surpassed."  68  These 
superlatives  hardly  overstated  the  case.  No  previous 
Whig  campaigner  of  the  district  had  in  fact  achieved 
such  results;  and  so  fully  did  they  justify  Lincoln's 
persistent  demands  upon  his  party  for  the  nomina- 
tion that  his  election  must  have  brought  him  a 
double  measure  of  gratification. 

Then,  however,  came  the  all  but  inevitable  reac- 
tion. That  triumph,  so  long  deferred  and  so  pa- 
tiently wrought  out,  fell  short  of  what  his  ambitious 
fancy  had  pictured.  The  sub-acid  tang,  which  de- 
tracts too  often  from  our  complete  enjoyment  of 
life's  sweetest  morsels,  entered  into  the  victor's 
spirit  at  the  moment  of  achievement,  and  left  him 
disappointed.  Addressing  his  sympathetic  friend 
Speed  —  the  other  self  of  those  days  —  in  much  the 
same  vein  as  the  great  Roman  politician  Cicero  was 
wont  to  employ  toward  his  intimate  Atticus,  when 
eclipsing  shadows  of  depression  marred  the  joy 
of  some  brilliant  exploit,  Lincoln  wrote:  "Being 
elected  to  Congress,  though  I  am  very  grateful  to 
our  friends  for  having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me 
as  much  as  I  expected."  69 


THE  END 


ALONZO   ROTHSCHILD 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 


ALONZO   ROTHSCHILD 

THE  morning  that  my  father  finished  that  concluding 
paragraph  —  the  last  that  he  ever  wrote  —  he  called 
mother  into  the  study.  With  an  air  of  mysterious  solem- 
nity, belied  by  the  twinkle  in  his  eye,  he  beckoned  her 
to  the  desk. 

"Meta,  if  you  promise  not  to  tell  a  soul,  I  '11  tell  you  a 
state  secret,"  he  said.  "I've  got  Lincoln  to  Congress  at 
last."  Then  more  earnestly  he  continued:  "It  was  n't  an 
easy  job  either.  I  Ve  fought  all  his  battles  side  by  side 
with  him,  and  the  world  will  probably  never  know  how 
hard  we  toiled  and  moiled  together." 

These  words  exactly  expressed  his  relationship  to  his 
work.  During  the  twenty-three  years  that  he  devoted 
to  the  study  and  interpretation  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  he 
lived  with  him  in  spirit  as  the  great  novelists  have  lived 
with  the  children  of  their  fancies.  Lincoln's  sorrows  and 
triumphs  and  defeats  were  as  real  to  him  as  those  of  his 
own  life.  It  is  small  wonder,  therefore,  that  when  men 
who  had  known  Lincoln  read  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men, 
they  frequently  mistook  its  author  for  an  intimate  con- 
temporary of  the  great  President. 

Though  not  of  the  same  generation  as  Lincoln,  my 
father's  life  was,  in  a  trivial  way,  associated  with  it  at 
the  start.  He  was  born  in  New  York  City  on  the  evening 
of  a  Lincoln  rally  at  Cooper  Union,  October  30,  1862. 
The  family  physician  was  at  the  meeting  when  the  time 
became  ripe  for  his  services,  so  my  grandfather  followed 
him  there,  somehow  found  him  in  the  vast  crowd,  and 
worked  upon  his  sense  of  duty  so  that  he  consented  to 
forego  the  speeches,  and  returned  with  my  grandfather 
to  the  Rothschild  home. 

One  is  tempted  to  speculate  whether  or  not,  as  the 


286       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

doctor  looked  down  at  the  boy  whose  birth  had  prevented 
him  from  hearing  eminent  men  discuss  the  President,  — 
whether  or  not  some  confiding  Fate  whispered  to  him  a 
half-articulate  prophecy  that  that  same  boy  was  one  day 
to  be  among  the  most  deep-seeing  interpreters  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Interesting  as  this  coincidence  is,  in  the  light  of  suc- 
ceeding developments,  it  is,  of  course,  quite  devoid  of 
significance.  Not  until  some  years  later  did  Abraham 
Lincoln  actually  become  an  influence  in  my  father's  life. 

Probably  it  was  his  father  who  first  planted  the  seed 
of  admiration  for  Lincoln  in  his  mind,  for  John  Roths- 
child came  to  America  with  an  influx  of  German  revolu- 
tionists —  men  of  the  Carl  Schurz  stamp  —  and  to  him, 
as  to  so  many  of  those  who  came  in  that  wave  of  immi- 
gration, "Lincoln  became  an  ideal,  —  a  prophet." 

Just  as  some  knowledge  of  my  father's  parentage  helps 
to  an  understanding  of  his  interest  in  Abraham  Lincoln, 
it  enables  one  better  to  comprehend  several  of  his  per- 
sonal characteristics.  The  thoroughness  that  fortified  all 
his  undertakings  may  be  attributed  to  his  unmixed 
German  blood.  For  his  mother  as  well  as  his  father  was 
German.  She  was  known  as  "Beautiful  Kate,"  but  a 
remarkable  amiability  that  poverty  and  the  raising  of  a 
large  family  never  impaired  was  her  outstanding  char- 
acteristic. The  evenness  of  disposition  that  my  father 
inherited  from  her  combined  strangely  with  a  certain 
fiery  impetuosity  and  violence  of  temper  that  was  of 
paternal  origin,  so  that  his  ordinary  mildness  and  long- 
suffering  sometimes  blazed  out  into  a  Jovian  wrath. 
From  both  parents  equally,  he  derived  a  sturdy  honesty, 
common  sense,  and  humor,  while  to  his  father  in  particu- 
lar he  owed  a  ready  wit  and  skill  in  repartee. 

Beyond  the  excellence  of  his  parentage,  there  was 
nothing  particularly  auspicious  about  the  conditions  of 
my  father's  early  life.  John  Rothschild  was  an  invalid, 
and  his  various  attempts  to  get  on  in  the  world  were  un- 
successful. Furthermore,  there  were  six  complications 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       287 

in  the  bread-and-butter  problem  of  which  my  father  was 
the  fourth.  But  nature  had  equipped  him  splendidly  for 
the  upward  battle  that  those  must  wage  who  would  rise 
from  the  ranks.  While  there  cannot  have  been  much 
suggestive  of  the  fighter  in  the  frail  little  chap  who  was 
"Lonny"  Rothschild,  yet  a  cool  sureness  of  purpose  and 
virile  resourcefulness  often  won  him  the  palm  in  unequal 
encounters  with  bullies  as  well  as  in  the  subtler  battles  of 
school  and  daily  life. 

There  is  a  story  that  testifies  to  his  resourcefulness  and 
at  the  same  time  indicates  his  literary  instinct.  "  Lonny's  " 
family  lived  on  Fifty-fourth  Street  and  his  school  was  at 
Thirteenth  Street,  two  miles  away.  He  could  afford  the 
horse  cars  only  on  his  way  to  school,  and  used  to  return 
afoot.  His  chum,  however,  whose  parents  were  in  better 
circumstances,  received  two  car  fares  daily  and  was 
expected  to  ride  both  ways.  One  day,  by  the  promise  of 
a  story,  "Lonny"  inveigled  the  youngster  into  walking 
home  with  him.  The  story  proved  to  be  an  exciting  serial 
that  never  ended,  so  that  henceforth  the  author  always 
had  company  on  these  journeys.  And  what  is  more,  not 
only  were  his  spirits  fortified  by  company,  but  his  inner 
being  was  regaled  with  the  refreshments  that  he  per- 
suaded young  Croesus  to  buy  along  the  way  with  the  mis- 
appropriated car  fares. 

Generally  speaking,  "Lon"  did  not  care  much  for  the 
company  of  his  schoolmates  or  for  their  games.  He  pre- 
ferred a  book  to  a  game  of  ball.  In  fact  he  used  habitu- 
ally to  get  his  one  pair  of  shoes  wet  so  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  curl  up  in  an  armchair  before  the  kitchen  stove 
with  a  biography  or  some  standard  novel. 

There  was  a  periodical  shop  in  the  neighborhood,  where 
he  spent  part  of  his  spare  time,  helping  the  proprietor 
and,  in  lieu  of  pay,  gorging  himself  indiscriminately  on 
the  literature  that  lined  the  walls.  Heterodox  as  it  may 
be  to  say  so,  "Jack  Harkaway"  and  the  other  yellow- 
backs which  he  read  there,  had  a  beneficial  effect  on 
his  style.  They  developed  the  virility  and  feeling  for 


288       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

dramatic  sequences  that  later  constituted  his  main  lit- 
erary charm. 

But  perhaps  the  most  germinal  of  all  these  early  liter- 
ary habits  was  his  daily  custom  of  reading  the  newspaper 
to  his  invalid  father.  Those  were  the  Reconstruction 
days,  when  the  blunders  of  certain  of  Lincoln's  successors 
called  forth  constant  editorial  comment  on  "How  Lin- 
coln would  have  done  it."  The  spirit  of  reverence  and 
admiration  for  the  great  President  that  the  press  exhaled 
must  have  stimulated  tremendously  the  hero-worship 
that  had  already  taken  root  in  the  enthusiastic  mind  of 
the  lad. 

Somewhat  of  an  idealist,  as  this  would  suggest,  almost 
from  the  first,  Alonzo  Rothschild  was  never  a  mere 
dreamer.  The  same  balance  that  contributed  so  to  his 
success  throughout  later  life  was  already  ingrained  in  his 
make-up.  He  was  earnest,  but  fun-loving;  frail,  yet  red- 
blooded;  youthful,  and  still  mature;  idealistic,  but  none 
the  less  practical. 

His  practical  powers  had  an  opportunity  to  expand  as 
soon  as  he  was  old  enough  to  run  errands.  From  that 
time  on  until  he  left  college,  his  summer  vacations  were 
spent  in  the  employ  of  some  firm,  earning  a  little  money 
and  learning  something  of  business  methods.  The  first 
of  these  summer  positions  was  with  a  leather  importer, 
who,  largely  in  jest,  set  him  the  task  of  making  a  cable 
code.  What  the  merchant  meant  in  fun,  my  father  took 
in  earnest,  and  some  time  thereafter  he  handed  his 
employer  a  code  so  well  worked  out,  and  so  beautifully 
written,  that  for  weeks  the  man  proudly  exhibited  it  to 
every  member  of  the  trade  who  entered  the  office. 

Such  precocity  often  engenders  superficiality,  but  his 
was  the  rare  brilliance  that  does  not  catch  at  sunbeams, 
but  is  content  to  labor.  This  appeared  in  school  as  well 
as  in  his  summer  work,  for  the  abstract  desire  to  do 
effectively  whatever  might  come  to  hand  was  reinforced, 
in  school,  by  ambition  and  directed  by  a  passion  for 
knowledge. 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       289 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  where  he  took  his  first  independent 
step  into  journalism.  One  of  his  summer  positions  had 
been  with  an  art  magazine  which  employed  him  as  "  office 
boy,  devil,  and  General  Utility,  —  his  only  military 
distinction."  The  force  was  small  and  the  office  boy's 
functions  corresponded  with  the  range  of  his  abilities. 
He  ran  errands,  received  visitors,  read  proof  or  compiled 
articles  for  publication,  as  occasion  demanded. 

With  this  varied  experience,  as  a  background,  the  lad 
started  a  college  publication  called  The  Free  Press.  The 
paper  was  intrinsically  modest,  but  when  one  considers 
that  the  bulk  of  the  work  was  borne  by  one  boy  and  that 
the  publication  was  successful  enough  to  pay  that  boy's 
expenses,  the  matter  appears  in  a  wholly  different  light. 

He  did  almost  everything  connected  with  The  Free 
Press  save  the  printing.  He  wrote  the  jokes,  editorials, 
stories,  and  news  items.  But  so  effectively  did  he  attack 
certain  obnoxious  faculty  measures  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  work  behind  a  mask  of  anonymity,  thus  forfeit- 
ing the  prestige  that  his  achievement  would  normally 
have  given  him  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellow  students. 

Although  his  connection  with  the  paper  remained  a 
secret  during  his  college  years,  it  caused  his  downfall.  So 
much  of  his  time  did  the  undertaking  absorb  that  in 
his  junior  year,  he  failed  to  pass  his  examinations.  This 
slump  from  honors  to  failure,  however,  did  not  destroy 
the  confidence  that  his  teachers  had  in  his  inherent  worth, 
for  when  he  decided  to  finish  at  Cornell,  the  president  of 
the  College  gave  him  a  warm  letter  of  introduction  to  the 
president  of  the  other  institution. 

The  plan  to  transfer  to  Cornell  was  never  consum- 
mated. His  brother  Meyer,  who  favored  it  strongly  and 
who  was  furnishing  him  the  means,  went  to  Europe  that 
summer  on  business,  and  in  his  absence  my  father  decided 
that  the  hour  had  come  for  him  to  assume  a  share  in  his 
brother's  burdens.  Acting  upon  this  decision,  he  turned  to 
newspaper  work,  and  his  brother  upon  his  return  found 


290       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

him  reporting  for  the  Commerical  Advertiser.  Yet,  even 
with  the  college  doors  closing  behind  him  and  the  bitter, 
dubious,  financial  battle  ahead,  my  father  determined  to 
return  to  college  in  ten  years.  His  first  news  assignment 
cannot  have  cast  much  of  the  sunshine  of  hope  upon  his 
ambitions.  It  was  a  dog-show.  But  he  soon  demon- 
strated his  ability  so  conclusively  that  it  became  the  rule 
to  billet  him  for  important  assignments.  And  a  few 
months  later  he  was  selected  to  interview  Thomas  A. 
Edison. 

He  had  notable  success  as  an  interviewer,  a  success  that 
he  owed  to  his  scrupulous  accuracy.  He  recognized  two 
obligations,  —  an  obligation  to  the  newspaper  and  an 
obligation  to  the  person  who  had  entrusted  him  with  the 
publication  of  his  opinions.  But  it  did  not  take  him  long 
to  discover  that  in  the  newspaper  world  faithful  service 
such  as  his  waits  long  for  even  meager  rewards,  so  after 
a  few  months  with  the  Commercial  Advertiser,  he  turned 
his  back  on  journalism  and  entered  the  employ  of  a 
wholesale  gem  company.  There  his  promotion  was  steady 
and  he  even  learned  the  business  well  enough  to  travel 
for  the  firm.  After  several  years,  however,  he  decided 
that  early  financial  independence  and  consequent  free- 
dom for  literary  pursuits  could  not  come  to  him  if  he 
remained  a  "hireling."  He  therefore  cast  about  until  he 
found  what  seemed  an  opportunity,  and  having  matured 
his  plans  with  the  precision  of  a  military  strategist,  he 
started  out  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  to  be  his  own 
employer. 

His  new  venture  carried  him  back  again  into  the  field 
of  journalism.  The  jewelry  trade  publications  of  the  day 
were  monthlies  or  semi-monthlies  and  though  better  than 
the  common  run  of  their  contemporaries  in  trade  journal- 
ism, they  were  contemptible  when  judged  by  twentieth- 
century  journalistic  standards.  Their  only  aim  was  to 
sell  advertising  space  and  they  subordinated  everything 
to  that  one  purpose.  Their  pages  were  given  over  to 
"puffs  "and  inadequate  news  items,  and  to  dull  technical 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       291 

articles.  They  published  the  news  or  suppressed  it  at 
the  will  of  powerful  advertisers. 

Mr.  Rothschild  planned  a  weekly  which  was  to  publish 
the  jewelry  news  with  the  impersonal  completeness  of  a 
daily  newspaper;  whose  editorial  comment  was  to  be 
"brief,  conservative  and  absolutely  independent  of 
advertisers";  and  in  which  "puffs"  were  to  be  confined 
to  a  single  column  where  brevity  and  moderation  were  to 
obtain.  As  a  partner  in  the  enterprise,  he  chose  a  man 
whose  previous  experience  in  the  field  led  him  to  value 
his  services. 

A  class  publication  conducted  on  such  principles  was 
an  innovation  and  the  graybeards  shook  their  heads. 
Their  belief  that  the  whole  thing  was  the  disordered 
dream  of  a  Don  Quixote  and  his  Sancho  was  strengthened 
into  certainty  when  it  became  known  that  Mr.  Roths- 
child allowed  none  of  his  agents  to  treat  customers.  In 
the  light  of  their  experience  it  was  as  necessary  to  clinch 
a  contract  with  a  drink  as  it  was  to  ingratiate  one's  self 
by  a  judicious  suppression  of  news,  and  a  lavish  use  of 
"puffs." 

Had  the  founder  of  The  Jewelers'  Weekly  been  merely 
an  idealist,  their  prophecies  would  have  been  justified. 
But  so  completely  did  his  new  paper  cover  the  activities 
of  the  jewelry  world  that  no  jeweler  could  keep  abreast 
of  the  trade  without  reading  it.  Such  an  indispensable 
organ  was  logically  a  valuable  advertising  medium,  and 
before  long  disgruntled  advertisers  came  trooping  back 
with  contracts,  quite  willing  to  let  the  young  editor  deter- 
mine his  own  policies.  What  those  policies  were  may  be 
inferred  from  a  law  which  owes  its  presence  on  the 
statute  books  of  New  York  to  the  activities  of  The 
Jewelers'  Weekly.  The  law  is  that  which  forbids  a  pawn- 
broker to  receive  a  pledge  from  any  one  under  sixteen 
years  of  age.  The  need  for  it  was  first  revealed  by  an 
expos£  in  The  Jewelers'  Weekly  and  its  passage  was  due 
largely  to  Mr.  Rothschild's  efforts. 

Not  only  was  the  Weekly  a  power  for  good,  but  its 


292       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

editor,  though  not  much  more  than  twenty,  became  the 
recognized  "guide,  philosopher,  and  friend"  of  the  trade. 
He  took  a  friendly  interest  in  the  affairs  of  all  his  custom- 
ers, particularly  the  small  men  whom  it  was  his  delight 
to  nurse  along  with  advice  and  assistance,  helping  them 
often  to  achieve  great  success. 

In  this  respect  and  in  several  others,  Mr.  Rothschild 
showed  himself  to  be  no  mere  seeker  after  wealth.  It  is 
true  that  he  was  in  business  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
making  a  competency  rapidly,  but  while  in  the  game  he 
played  it  as  much  for  its  own  sake  as  for  the  prize.  Writ- 
ing in  his  diary  concerning  the  famous  "Birthday  Num- 
ber," the  finest  thing  of  its  day  in  trade  journalism,  he 
said:  "My  ambition  is  to  make  this  the  handsomest  and 
most  readable  volume  ever  issued  by  a  trade  publica- 
tion." That  and  similar  utterances  indicate  that  his 
interest  in  the  Weekly  was  not  focused  entirely  on  its 
money-getting  powers. 

Because  of  ill  health,  his  partner  withdrew  from  the 
firm  after  a  few  years,  leaving  him  a  free  hand  in  all 
departments,  editorial  and  financial,  and  he  was  able  to 
test  his  theories  to  the  limit.  In  the  six  months  following 
he  made  the  Weekly  a  landmark  in  trade  journalism  be- 
sides increasing  its  value  five  times.  The  principle  which 
built  his  success  at  this  time  will  surprise  most  business 
men.  It  was:  "Give  the  other  fellow  a  chance  to  make 
something  too."  In  testing  this  thesis,  he  worked  out 
what  was  probably  one  of  the  first  profit-sharing  plans, 
which,  like  his  other  attempts  to  humanize  business, 
justified  itself  in  dollars  and  cents. 

It  was  partly  this  policy  of  liberality  and  partly  his 
desire  to  pave  the  way  for  his  farewell  to  business  that 
induced  him,  at  the  zenith  of  his  success,  to  take  his  one- 
time partner  back  into  the  firm,  and  with  him  two  other 
men. 

The  Jewelers'  Weekly  Publishing  Company,  as  it  was 
called,  with  Mr.  Rothschild  as  president,  then  took  over 
The  Jewelers'  Weekly  and  the  allied  publications  that  he 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       293 

had  either  started  or  projected.  As  long  as  he  remained 
an  active  member  of  the  firm,  success  continued  to  crown 
its  undertakings,  but  after  he  ceased  to  have  a  hand  in 
its  conduct  the  splendid  publication  of  which  he  was  so 
proud,  languished. 

The  failure  of  his  colleagues  to  continue  the  work  he 
had  so  successfully  carried  on  almost  single-handed, 
throws  into  strong  relief  his  achievements.  He  had  at- 
tained financial  independence  in  six  years  —  an  inde- 
pendence won  at  cost  to  no  one  else  and  with  incidental 
benefit  to  many;  he  had  shown  that  profits  and  ethical 
principles  are  not  at  opposite  poles  of  human  endeavor; 
he  had  proved  the  feasibility  of  the  profit-sharing  plan ; 
he  had  elevated  the  tone  of  the  jewelry  trade;  and  he  had 
set  new  standards  in  trade  journalism. 

One  would  ordinarily  feel  safe  in  concluding  that  a 
young  man  who  in  six  years  accomplished  so  many  things 
had  not  been  able  to  do  much  else.  Yet  Alonzo  Roths- 
child found  opportunity,  also,  to  keep  alive  his  intellectual 
interests,  to  do  literary  work,  and  to  take  an  active  part 
in  city  politics. 

While  still  in  newspaper  work  he  had  begun  making  an 
elaborate  card  index  of  his  reading  in  the  belief  that  it 
would  be  useful  in  later  literary  undertakings.  This  he 
continued  to  enrich  during  the  years  that  he  was  building 
up  the  Weekly,  finding  time  somehow  to  do  a  vast  amount 
of  general  reading.  His  active  literary  work  comprised  a 
very  excellent  monograph  on  Nathan  Hale  which  ap- 
peared subsequently  in  America,  a  patriotic  journal  of 
the  day.  The  research  requisite  for  the  work  was  consid- 
erable and  it  was  only  by  dogged  persistence  that  Mr. 
Rothschild  could  make  any  headway.  All  through  his 
chronicle  of  those  busy  days  one  comes  across  references 
to  the  Hale  manuscript,  triumph  at  having  found  time 
to  progress  or  chagrin  at  being  delayed.  One  of  these 
passages  throws  so  much  light  upon  his  character  that  it 
is  worth  quoting.  He  writes:  "The  Hale  notes  hardly 
seem  to  move.  I  get  so  little  time  for  them.  I  am  tempted 


294       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

to  discontinue  them  for  the  present,  but  I  have  never  yet 
failed  in  anything  I  started  to  accomplish  and  I  will  not 
begin  now.  We'll  crawl  ahead  as  best  we  can." 

Despite  the  conflicting  interests  that  he  complains  of, 
he  still  found  time  to  do  his  part  in  politics.  He  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Good  Government  Movement  — 
"Goo-Goos,"  as  they  were  called  —  and  the  youngest 
member  of  its  Executive  Council.  When  the  organization 
was  forming,  a  body  of  naturalized  Germans  asked  to  be 
affiliated,  proposing  to  designate  their  branch  as  German- 
American.  Without  any  heed  to  the  possible  political 
consequences  of  such  a  course,  Mr.  Rothschild  argued 
against  affiliation  with  any  society  that  maintained  a 
hyphenated  character.  He  said:  "There  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  German-American.  These  men  are  either  American 
or  they  are  not.  If  their  patriotism  is  equivocal  and  they 
persist  in  tying  strings  to  it,  we  must  have  nothing  to  do 
with  them."  Such  an  attitude  in  one  whose  tenderest 
associations  were  all  in  some  sense  German  is  strikingly 
indicative  of  an  unbiased,  logical  mind. 

Mr.  Rothschild's  activities  were  not  even  confined  to 
politics,  study,  and  literary  work.  He  was  also  prominent 
among  the  younger  members  of  the  Society  for  Ethical 
Culture.  He  had  a  way  of  giving  an  original  turn  to  a 
discussion  or  of  putting  a  question  in  a  clearer,  more 
spiritual  light  that  attracted  Dr.  Adler  and  the  latter 
asked  him  to  write  a  book  on  the  Morals  of  Trade  and  to 
become  a  member  of  the  society's  lecture  staff. 

Few  young  men  would  have  been  dissatisfied  with  a 
lot  so  varied  and  rich  as  his,  yet  this  many-sided  man 
longed  for  something  different.  Neither  was  this  a  vague 
dissatisfaction.  Ever  since  he  left  college  he  had  hoped, 
one  day,  to  make  good  the  deficiencies  of  his  education. 
Somewhere  in  these  days  came  also  the  ambition  to  write 
about  Abraham  Lincoln. 

One  of  the  marvels  of  his  career  is  that  he  should  have 
realized  his  ideals.  Other  men  have  tried  to  do  what  he 
did  and  have  failed  because  money,  instead  of  remaining 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       295 

a  means  to  them,  became  the  object.  Yet  at  no  time  did 
he  let  the  brilliant  present  loom  large  enough  in  his 
mind  to  shut  out  the  future.  At  the  flood-tide  of  his  suc- 
cess, one  finds  this  passage  in  his  diary:  "How  I  long  for 
the  day  when,  free  from  business  cares,  I  can  give  my 
whole  time  and  attention  to  literary  work!"  Another, 
further  on,  shows  that  with  increased  prosperity  he  grew 
even  more  restive.  It  reads:  "Five  more  months  of  my 
last  money-grubbing  year  have  passed.  They  were  more 
agreeable  than  I  expected  them  to  be.  I  long  for  the  day 
when  some  other  sound  than  the  chink  of  the  golden 
guinea  will  charm  my  ear.  It  is  siren  music.  .  .  .  Let  me 
steer  my  bark  through  the  high  seas  of  moral  and  in- 
tellectual progress  toward  —  well,  we  shall  see!  How  I 
long  for  the  day  of  my  freedom!" 

Finally  the  day  of  freedom  did  come  and  then  my 
father  made  good  his  old  vow  to  return  to  college,  enter- 
ing Harvard  University  as  a  special  student  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight.  His  year  there  was  one  of  almost  cloister- 
like  tranquillity  and  yet  it  was  marked  by  achievement. 
In  addition  to  his  studies  he  found  opportunity  to  write 
a  series  of  newspaper  articles  on  the  Elective  System, 
then  being  introduced  by  President  Eliot.  The  latter 
evinced  great  interest  in  his  work  and  went  far  out  of  his 
way  to  furnish  him  with  data. 

Shortly  after  his  return  to  New  York  from  Harvard, 
Mr.  Rothschild  met  Miss  Meta  Robitscheck,  who  sub- 
sequently became  his  wife.  She  was  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  his  aspirations  and  agreed  with  him  that  the  work  he 
planned  could  be  done  better  away  from  the  distractions 
of  the  metropolis.  Accordingly,  they  went,  immediately 
after  their  wedding,  to  Cambridge,  wrenching  themselves 
away  from  lifelong  associations.  This  action  seemed  to 
others  even  more  unjustifiable  than  my  father's  pre- 
mature withdrawal  from  business,  but  neither  he  nor  his 
partner  in  the  enterprise  ever  regretted  their  course. 

The  two  years  at  Cambridge  were  an  auspicious  begin- 
ning for  the  intellectual  life.  There  my  mother  took 


296       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

special  courses  at  Radcliffe  until  my  birth  increased  her 
responsibilities,  arid  there  my  father  began  his  study  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  his  plan  at  first  to  write  a  set  of 
monographs  on  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet,  but  an  investi- 
gation of  the  material  revealed  possibilities  for  more 
ambitious  work,  and  gradually  the  great  scheme  matured 
of  which  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  and  this  book  are 
merely  parts,  the  whole  to  have  been  a  cycle  of  books 
treating  Lincoln's  character  from  all  angles.  Having  set 
himself  this  monumental  task  of  reconstructing  a  person- 
ality, my  father  decided  to  find  a  quiet  spot  where  he 
might  settle  down  to  work  and  where  his  family  could 
grow  up.  He  finally  discovered  in  the  village  of  East 
Foxboro,  twenty- two  miles  south  of  Boston,  a  hundred- 
year-old  house  surrounded  by  more  than  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  that  suited  him  and  my  mother,  and  there 
they  moved  in  the  fall  of  1897.  It  was  in  this  place  that 
Ruth  and  Miriam  were  born  and  that  my  father  passed 
the  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life  in  the  happy  realization 
of  the  dreams  of  his  youth. 

Though  absorbed  in  his  chosen  work,  he  somehow 
found  time  to  foster  other  interests,  just  as  in  the  New 
York  days.  From  the  very  first,  he  was  a  guiding  voice 
in  the  town  councils.  He  gained  the  confidence  of  the 
people  by  his  absolute  straightforwardness  and  their 
support  by  his  sound  judgment.  Only  once  did  he  con- 
sent to  hold  office,  but  he  never  withheld  his  assistance, 
serving  on  many  committees  and  doing  all  manner  of 
valuable  work.  He  might  as  well  have  been  a  town  official, 
for  usually,  when  there  was  constructive  work  to  be  done, 
the  selectmen  came  to  him  for  guidance.  People  seemed 
instinctively  to  turn  to  him  for  assistance.  Shortly  after 
he  moved  to  East  Foxboro,  the  inhabitants  asked  him  if 
he  would  be  their  leader  in  a  legislative  fight  for  inde- 
pendence from  Foxboro.  For  years  they  had  nursed  their 
grievances  and  waited  for  a  Moses  to  lead  them  out  of 
bondage.  They  complained,  very  justly,  that  they  had 
been  paying  taxes  and  asking  in  vain  for  their  share  of 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       297 

the  appropriations.  The  streets  were  in  bad  condition, 
the  schoolhouse  falling  to  decay,  and  on  every  hand  were 
evidences  of  a  very  palpable  wrong.  Somewhere,  some- 
how Mr.  Rothschild  had  got  a  remarkably  sound  know- 
ledge of  law.  He  drew  up  a  petition  of  separation  and  led 
the  fight  against  the  parent  town,  in  the  legislature.  The 
facts  of  the  case  were  plainly  in  favor  of  the  petition,  and 
it  would  have  been  granted,  had  not  the  member  from 
Foxboro  log-rolled  long  before  the  bill  came  up.  Although 
defeated  in  his  effort  to  make  East  Foxboro  a  separate 
town,  Mr.  Rothschild  virtually  won  a  victory,  for  ever 
since  that  time  the  village  has  enjoyed  fair  treatment 
from  the  parent  town. 

A  number  of  years  later  East  Foxboro  called  upon  Mr. 
Rothschild  to  go  before  the  state  authorities  to  procure 
a  water  district  charter.  He  drew  up  the  charter  and  saw 
to  its  enactment,  thus  saving  the  district  several  thousand 
dollars  in  attorneys'  fees.  And,  what  is  more,  his  charter 
embodied  such  improvements  that  it  has  since  been  the 
model  for  new  water  districts  in  Massachusetts. 

Nor  were  Mr.  Rothschild's  public  services  confined  to 
his  own  community.  He  was  instrumental  in  procuring 
the  passage  of  a  law  that  compels  every  town  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  employ  the  services  of  a  superintendent  of 
schools.  He  was  also  one  of  those  who  tried,  with  par- 
tial success,  to  get  the  State  to  compel  the  railroads  to 
burn  crude  oil  in  their  locomotives  and  thus  put  an 
end  to  the  forest  fires  caused  by  flying  coal  sparks. 

Save  for  such  public  services  to  his  community  and  to 
the  State,  my  father  devoted  most  of  his  time  to  his  study 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  is  true  that  he  was  vice-president 
of  the  Lincoln  Fellowship,  a  director  of  the  Free  Religious 
Association,  a  member  of  the  Anti-Imperialist  League, 
of  the  Massachusetts  Peace  Society,  and  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Reform  Club,  but  none  of  these  organizations 
claimed  much  of  his  time. 

In  1901  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Anti-Imperialist  Con- 
vention at  Indianapolis,  but  barring  this  and  occasional 


298       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

short  business  or  pleasure  trips,  he  spent  his  time  quietly 
at  "Brook  Farm"  educating  his  family;  entertaining  his 
friends ;  farming  a  little ;  helping  those  who  turned  to  him 
for  advice  from  all  sides;  and  carrying  on  his  work.  In 
1906  this  study  bore  its  first  fruit  in  the  volume  Lincoln, 
Master  of  Men. 

His  premature  death  at  the  age  of  fifty- three  prevented 
him  from  quite  completing  Honest  Abe.  Had  he  finished 
this  book,  however,  he  would  merely  have  taken  Lincoln 
a  little  further  in  his  political  career  and  added  to  proof 
that  already  amply  sustains  his  thesis. 

It  is  given  to  few  to  meet  death  so  exquisitely  as  he 
did,  —  alone,  without  suffering,  in  the  presence  only  of 
Nature.  On  the  morning  of  September  29,  1915,  after  a 
game  of  tennis  with  my  mother,  he  went  down  to  the  lake 
alone  for  a  plunge.  He  was  missed  some  hours  later,  and 
a  search  discovered  him  dead  in  the  water — a  victim  of 
heart  failure  caused  by  the  icy  shock. 

His  life  was  a  candle  that,  burning  with  an  unusually 
generous  and  beautiful  flame,  consumed  itself  before  the 
appointed  hour. 


One  of  my  father's  friends  used  to  say,  "The  real  thing 
never  looks  the  part."  Like  most  epigrams  his  is  too 
inclusive.  My  father,  for  example,  did  most  thoroughly 
look  the  part.  Literary  admirers  who  met  him  in  the 
flesh  were  not  disillusioned  and  those  other  persons  who 
came  in  casual  contact  with  him  rarely  hesitated  to  class 
him  as  a  student,  — though  beyond  that  point  opinions 
diverged.  Some  set  him  down  for  a  physician,  others  for 
a  lawyer,  still  others  as  a  college  professor,  and  a  few  of 
the  keenest  for  what  he  really  was,  —  a  man  of  letters. 
His  physical  traits,  clothes,  and  manner  were  —  contrary 
to  his  friend's  epigram  —  true  indices  to  his  personality 
and  occupation. 

A  trifle  below  the  medium  stature,  my  father  had  a  dis- 
tinction of  air  that  many  a  taller  man  might  have  envied. 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       299 

That  dignity  —  courtly  at  times  —  was  due  to  a  subtle 
blending  of  distinct  characteristics.  To  say  that  he  owed 
it  to  his  well-built,  muscular  figure,  or  to  his  erect  car- 
riage, would  be  palpably  inaccurate.  Such  a  description 
might  fit  many  a  substantial  bourgeois,  whereas  Alonzo 
Rothschild,  despite  his  plain  tastes,  was  far  more  the 
patrician.  One  would  have  had  to  imagine  him  with 
another  head  and  other  hands  to  consider  him  bourgeois. 
Such  long,  white,  blue-veined  hands  belong  to  the  pro- 
verbial gentleman;  such  delicate  skin  is  an  attribute  of 
gentle  birth ;  such  a  head  is  seen  only  on  those  who  do  the 
world's  thinking.  Admirably  moulded,  it  put  one  in 
mind  of  a  well-built  house,  —  good  in  its  lines  and  roomy 
inside.  The  broad,  dome-like  forehead  —  exaggerated  by 
partial  baldness  —  and  the  full,  gray-brown  beard  were 
almost  unmistakable  indications  of  the  scholar.  Yet  quite 
as  distinctly  were  the  silkiness  of  his  black  hair,  the  well- 
set,  finely  cut  features,  the  sparse  eyebrows,  and  the 
curling  nostrils,  marks  of  the  aristocrat.  But  it  was  the 
kindliness  and  swift  intelligence  of  his  hazel  eyes  that 
gave  his  face  its  mobility  of  expression.  Passions  and 
moods  played  across  it  as  freely  as  the  lights  and  shadows 
of  the  sky  are  reflected  on  the  surface  of  a  summer  meadow. 

As  his  appearance  bespoke,  my  father  was  physically 
and  nervously  of  delicate  fiber.  His  sense  of  touch,  for 
example,  was  hypersensitive,  and  it  was  amusing,  at 
table,  to  see  how  gingerly  he  handled  hot  plates.  He  was, 
however,  in  no  sense  unmanly  and  too  often  suffered 
acutely  in  silence.  In  fact  he  could  much  better  bear  suf- 
fering himself  than  witness  it  in  others.  Not  infrequently 
when  some  member  of  the  family  was  in  pain,  he  became 
similarly  afflicted  through  sheer  sympathy. 

Sometimes  his  constitutional  intensity  manifested  itself 
in  quite  a  different  manner.  Ordinarily  mild-tempered 
and  patient,  he  was  capable  of  a  withering  wrath.  Re- 
lentless, and  concentrating  in  itself  all  his  physical  and 
intellectual  forces,  it  could  flare  up  without  warning,  or 
wait  years  for  an  opportune  moment,  and  then  sweep  upon 


300       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

the  chosen  enemy  like  a  rain  of  fire.  Crushing  as  the  effect 
of  such  an  outburst  was  upon  its  victim,  it  was  hardly  less 
disastrous  in  its  physical  reaction  upon  himself. 

Irritability  and  violence  of  temper  constituted  in  his 
case  the^enemy  that  every  man  carries  within  himself.  It 
is  evident  that  he  recognized  his  cardinal  fault,  for  he 
kept  a  little  card  perched  on  his  inkstand  bearing  this 
proverb  in  his  own  handwriting:  "Mensch  arger  dich 
nicht." 

Usually  people  so  highly  organized  are  difficult  to  live 
with,  but  my  father  was  a  striking  exception.  Save  for 
such  occasional  outbursts  as  have  already  been  alluded 
to,  he  was  of  a  sunny  disposition  and  most  considerate  in 
his  personal  relationships.  Those  whose  duty  it  was  to 
minister  to  his  comfort  and  physical  well-being  found 
him  easy  to  please.  He  was  austerely  plain  in  matters  of 
dress  and  neither  knew  nor  cared  what  he  ate.  Indeed, 
when  mentally  absorbed,  he  forgot  his  meals,  and  it  is 
said  that  while  he  was  editing  The  Jewelers'  Weekly  he 
ate  lunch  only  if  one  of  his  friends  came  and  dragged  him 
out.  Even  had  he  been  more  exacting  and  given  freer 
rein  to  his  moods,  his  personal  charm  would  have  been 
sufficient  counterbalance.  His  resonant  voice,  buoyancy, 
and  ready  sympathy  would  alone  have  made  him  a  pleas- 
ant companion.  Then,  too,  he  had  an  almost  magical 
influence  over  all  who  came  within  his  range  of  acquaint- 
ance, stimulating  the  best  that  they  had  in  them,  and 
bringing  it  to  the  slirface. 

His  interest  in  humanity  was  not  limited  by  age  or  sex. 
He  had  a  great  tenderness  for  children  and  a  power  over 
their  affections  that  was  but  another  phase  of  his  diverse 
nature.  He  made  a  capital  playmate,  as  his  own  children 
well  remember,  and  the  serious  concerns  of  the  grown-up 
world  never  so  shackled  him  that  he  could  not  shake  them 
off  for  a  romp,  or  a  song,  to  invent  a  new  game  or  to  play 
some  old  favorite.  Like  many  other  men  who  have  done 
big  things,  he  never  entirely  lost  a  certain  boyishness  that 
cropped  out  occasionally  in  whimsical  little  pranks.  One 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       301 

of  these  is  so  superior  to  the  general  run  of  practical  jokes 
that  it  bears  narrating. 

It  was  in  The  Jewelers'  Weekly  days.  He  was  returning 
to  New  York  from  a  trip  to  Albany  and  some  friends  had 
accompanied  him  to  the  train.  While  they  were  waiting, 
my  father  accidentally  dropped  a  half-dollar  and  one  of 
the  young  ladies,  picking  it  up,  vowed  that  she  would 
keep  it  as  a  remembrance.  My  father  pleaded  with  mock 
concern  that  he  needed  it  to  complete  his  fare,  but  she, 
disbelieving  him,  clung  to  it  the  more  firmly.  She  was 
correct  in  her  assumption  that  he  had  plenty  of  money 
with  him,  but  on  the  train  he  decided  that  the  fifty  cents 
should  earn  him  some  fun  and  not  be  a  total  loss. 

On  arriving  in  New  York,  he  went  to  his  printer  and 
had  him  strike  off  a  mock  newspaper  clipping  which  nar- 
rated how  a  young  man,  giving  his  name  as  Alonzo  Roths- 
child, had  been  ejected  from  the  Chicago  Limited  because 
he  lacked  part  of  the  fare ;  how  he  maintained  that  it  had 

been  stolen  from  him  by  a  Miss  L of  Albany,  and 

how  he  was  last  seen  trudging  toward  New  York. 

Not  only  was  the  young  lady  contrite  over  her  playful 
theft,  but  she  was  enraged  at  the  newspaper  that  would 
print  such  a  story  about  her,  and  for  a  long  time  she 
begged  my  father  to  divulge  the  name  so  that  she  might 
bring  suit. 

This  story  well  illustrates  the  exuberant,  playful  humor 
that  brightened  his  whole  life  and  that  made  our  dinner 
table  more  famous  for  puns,  jokes,  and  repartee  than  for 
good  cheer  of  the  other  sort,  But  there  is  another  anec- 
dote of  this  period  which  throws  more  light  on  his 
character. 

One  day  a  gentleman  who  knew  the  family  was  walking 
through  Mount  Morris  Park,  in  New  York,  when  he 
noticed  a  bareheaded  young  man  seated  on  a  park  bench 
and  absorbed  in  a  book.  Approaching  along  the  path  he 
was  surprised  to  recognize  my  father,  and  on  reaching 
the  bench  he  was  still  more  astonished  to  see  that  his 
forehead  swarmed  with  mosquitoes. 


302       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

"Did  n't  expect  to  see  you  here,  Lon,"  he  sang  out. 
My  father  started  at  the  unexpected  sound  of  the  voice 
as  if  he  had  been  shot,  and  looked  up.  "Why,  hello,  Sid, 
I'm  just  studying,"  he  said.  "It  looks  more  as  if  you 
were  mosquito  farming,"  his  friend  replied.  "Why  don't 
you  brush  them  off?"  "Oh,  I  want  them  there,"  my 
father  answered.  "I  don't  concentrate  the  way  I  ought 
to  and  I'm  learning  how." 

The  discipline  must  have  been  effectual,  for  while 
interruptions  annoyed  him  exceedingly,  the  mere  pres- 
ence of  people  in  the  study  while  he  worked  never  dis- 
turbed him.  For  years  my  youngest  sister  spent  her 
mornings  on  the  rug  beside  his  desk,  and  while  she  cut 
out  paper  dolls  and  crooned  to  herself,  he  wrote. 

My  father  was  capable,  not  only  of  great  concentration, 
but  also  of  unity  of  purpose.  Gifted  with  a  variety  of 
talents  and  innumerable  opportunities  to  exercise  them, 
he  remained  —  save  for  unavoidable  digressions  —  a  one- 
job  man.  He  consistently  refused  tempting  offers  to 
address  audiences,  to  undertake  other  literary  labors,  or 
to  go  into  politics,  and  always  with  the  same  answer,  that 
he  had  a  task  to  do  and  must  not  stop  until  he  had  fin- 
ished. He  could  have  made  himself  a  prominent  figure 
in  the  public  eye,  but  he  found  greater  satisfaction  in 
quietly  doing  work  of  permanent  value. 

Singleness  of  purpose  and  concentration  were  only  two 
of  the  several  qualities  that  made  Alonzo  Rothschild  a 
man  of  strength.  What  had  been  willful  stubbornness  in 
his  childhood  crystallized,  later  in  life,  into  dogged  per- 
sistence. How  great  a  factor  it  was  in  his  successes  may 
be  judged  from  his  own  words.  Once  in  speaking  of  his 
past  life  he  said,  "I  have  never  really  wanted  a  thing 
without  getting  it." 

In  addition  to  this  driving  force  he  had  the  gift  of 
silence.  Not  that  he  was  what  is  known  as  a  man  of  few 
words,  nor  that  he  was  loath  to  express  definite  opinions, 
but  he  knew  how  to  keep  his  own  counsels.  He  rarely 
discussed  a  plan  until  its  success  was  assured,  and  con- 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       303 

cerning  his  literary  work,  he  was  almost  secretive.  This 
reticence  in  discussing  himself  was  due  somewhat  to  dis- 
creetness, somewhat  to  good  taste,  but  largely  to  his 
doctrine  of  work  and  to  his  constitutional  objectivity. 
He  believed  that  the  world's  interest  should  focus  on  the 
work,  not  on  the  author.  He  despised  the  man  whose 
personality  was  more  discussed  than  his  work  and  seemed 
to  have  little  sympathy  for  him  who  made  his  pen  a 
vehicle  for  expression  of  self.  In  this  prejudice  one  can 
read  the  influence  of  Addison,  and  others  of  the  classi- 
cal school,  — the  masters  whom  he  followed  in  forming  his 
style. 

Almost  equal  to  his  admiration  for  literature  that 
definitely  "gets  somewhere"  was  his  impatience  with 
leisurely,  descriptive,  digressive  writing,  however  charm- 
ing its  meanderings  might  be.  The  full  measure  of  his 
scorn,  however,  was  reserved  for  "precious"  writers  such 
as  Walter  Pater,  whose  involved,  mannered  style  and 
somewhat  luscious  thought  were  peculiarly  offensive  to 
one  who  prized  virility,  lightness  of  touch,  and  lucid 
directness,  as  he  did. 

Between  his  literary  work  and  his  fine  business  instinct 
there  was  a  connecting  bond.  He  applied  to  research  the 
methods  of  a  highly  trained  business  expert.  The  results 
can  best  be  described  by  quoting  his  own  words:  "  I  can," 
he  said,  "go  into  my  study  and  at  a  moment's  notice  lay 
my  hand  on  the  references  covering  any  point  in  Lincoln's 
life." 

Such  a  complete  mastery  of  the  subject  bespeaks  a 
laborious  thoroughness  that  one  associates  with  such 
names  as  Stradivari ;  a  striving  for  perfection  suggestive 
of  the  days  of  hand-made  things.  With  the  care  of  a 
master  cabinet-maker  choosing  his  woods,  he  collected 
facts,  subjecting  them  to  the  same  searching  scrutiny  to 
which  the  cabinet-maker  subjects  the  woods  in  a  hunt 
for  hidden  flaws.  Then  having  tested  his  materials,  he 
put  them  together  —  fitting,  readjusting,  and  polishing, 
with  all  the  care  of  the  cabinet-maker  —  until  he  had 


304       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

done  a  work  that  would  stand  for  all  time.  He  wrote 
with  a  deliberateness  that  might  seem  laughable  to  those 
unacquainted  with  the  art  of  authorship,  never  permit- 
ting a  sentence  to  stand  until  every  word  rang  true  even 
though  it  were  to  take  hours  in  the  writing.  Like  Ben 
Jonson  he  realized  that,  "Who  casts  to  write  a  living  line 
must  sweat."  It  may  seem  a  trivial  matter,  but  none  the 
less  it  is  significant  of  the  spirit  in  which  he  worked,  that 
the  printers  who  set  up  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  found 
the  manuscript  one  of  the  most  faultless  that  they  had 
ever  handled. 

The  grasp  of  detail  here  exemplified,  supplemented 
by  clearness  of  judgment,  originality,  and  foresight,  con- 
stituted a  rare  intellectual  fitness.  It  is  not  uncommon 
to  find  a  man  of  constructive  ability  or  one  who  is  a  good 
administrator,  but  the  two  qualities  are  rarely  found 
together.  Where  they  are  associated,  one  has  a  man 
equipped  for  high  service.  With  such  an  endowment  of 
all-round  effectiveness,  Alonzo  Rothschild  could  have 
attained  leadership  in  any  one  of  many  fields  of  human 
endeavor. 

There  were  lines,  however,  along  which  my  father  was 
little  developed.  His  tastes  in  music  and  art  were  plain, 
not  to  say  plebeian.  Nor  was  he  of  a  deeply  poetic  or 
metaphysical  cast  of  mind.  The  older  he  grew,  the  more 
he  centered  his  attention  upon  international,  ethical,  and 
social  questions,  and  the  less  upon  abstract  metaphysical 
inquiries.  A  Jew  by  birth,  he  early  settled  down  to 
agnosticism,  though  never  quite  contentedly.  As  a  young 
man  he  had  been  strongly  attracted  by  Theosophy,  but 
finding  nothing  substantial  on  which  to  base  a  belief  he 
sadly  gave  it  up  and  lapsed  back  into  agnosticism.  Still 
all  through  his  life  Theosophy  flitted  before  his  eyes  as  an 
unattained  desire  and  he  often  expressed  the  wish  that 
he  could  accept  its  beautiful  philosophy.  That  he  had  a 
strong  religious  instinct  is  further  testified  by  his  own 
words  about  sacred  music.  He  writes:  "Irreligious  as  I 
am,  sacred  music  when  well  played  on  the  organ  has  a 


ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD       305 

powerful  influence  on  me.  It  makes  me  feel  sometimes 
as  if  I  were  inspired  —  as  if  I  could  seize  my  pen  and 
write  something  worth  reading." 

Though  too  much  a  man  of  the  world  to  be  a  poet  in 
the  strict  meaning  of  the  word,  he  was  one  in  the  larger 
sense  of  magnificence  of  conceptions,  elevated  thoughts, 
and  high  purposes. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  consider  what 
influence  his  almost  lifelong  study  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
may  have  had  on  his  character.  It  would  seem  that  in  his 
great  simplicity,  he  must  have  been  directly  influenced 
by  Lincoln.  Like  him,  he  considered  himself  a  plain  man, 
and  he  contented  himself  with  a  plain  man's  share  of  the 
world's  luxuries.  He  rarely  rode  in  a  parlor-car  and  could 
satisfy  his  hunger  as  contentedly  at  a  dairy  lunch  as  in  a 
hotel  dining-room.  He  cared  nothing  for  the  appearance 
of  things. 

The  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life  he  spent  in  a  plain 
old  farmhouse.  There  was  nothing  about  its  exterior  to 
distinguish  it  from  thousands  of  other  New  England 
farmhouses,  but  once  inside,  the  visitor  found  himself  in 
"a  city  of  books."  In  other  respects  he  found  the  house 
as  unpretentious  inside  as  it  appeared  from  without.  It 
lacked  no  comforts  or  conveniences,  but  there  was  no 
studied  attempt  at  decoration.  It  was  quite  evidently 
the  home  of  a  man  who  valued  only  the  genuine  things  of 
life. 

And  yet,  with  all  its  simplicity,  that  house  was  a  Mecca 
toward  which  turned  many  feet.  All  sorts  of  people  came 
there,  knowing  that  none  ever  went  away  without  being 
enriched.  For  one  it  was  new  inspiration;  for  another  the 
solution  of  some  vexing  problem,  or  perhaps  a  fresh  grasp 
on  his  whole  life.  They  knew  that  the  man  who  dwelt 
there  was  never  too  busy  or  too  weary  to  help  his  fellow 
men,  and  they  came  like  tired  children  for  comfort  or  for 
help.  They  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of  warm  sympathies, 
a  brave  man,  an  honest  man,  and  a  man  strong  enough 
to  help  shoulder  their  burdens.  How  many  realized  as 


306       ALONZO    ROTHSCHILD 

they  sat  there,  quietly  talking  with  him,  smiling  with  him, 
laughing  with  him,  that  this  man  who  seemed  so  like 
themselves  was  —  in  the  language  of  one  grateful  old 
lady — a  "prince  of  men"  in  whom  were  all  the  elements 
of  true  greatness. 

JOHN  ROTHSCHILD. 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 
April,  igi7- 


A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  CITED 


A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  CITED 

WITH  THE  CORRESPONDING  ABBREVI- 
ATIONS USED  IN  THE  NOTES 

Archer's  Ethical  Obligations:  Ethical  Obligations  of  the  Lawyer. 

By  Gleason  Leonard  Archer.    Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

1910. 
Arnold:  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.   By  Isaac  N.  Arnold. 

Seventh  Edition.  Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.   1896. 
Atkinson:  The   Boyhood   of  Lincoln.    By  Eleanor  Atkinson. 

New  York:   The  McClure  Company.   1908. 

Banks :  The  Lincoln  Legion.  The  Story  of  Its  Founder  and  Fore- 
runners. By  Rev.  Louis  Albert  Banks,  D.D.  Illustrated  with 
Drawings  by  Arthur  I.  Keller  and  Photographs.  New  York: 
The  Mershon  Company.  1903. 

Barrett,  New :  Abraham  Lincoln  and  His  Presidency.  By  Joseph 
H.  Barrett,  LL.D.  Illustrated.  In  Two  Volumes.  Cincinnati: 
The  Robert  Clarke  Company.  1904. 

Barrett :  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Presenting  his  early  history, 
political  career,  and  speeches  in  and  out  of  Congress.  By  Joseph 
H.  Barrett.  Cincinnati:  Moore,  Wilstach  &  Baldwin.  1865. 

Bartlett:  The  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
With  a  Portrait  on  Steel.  To  which  is  added  a  biographical 
sketch  of  Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin.  By  D.  W.  Bartlett.  New 
York  :  H.  Dayton.  1860. 

Bateman :  Abraham  Lincoln;  an  address.  By  Newton  Bateman. 
Galesburg,  111.:  Cadmus  Club  Publications.  1899. 

Binney :  The  Life  of  Horace  Binney,  with  selections  from  his 
letters.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company.  1903. 

Binns:  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Henry  Bryan  Binns.  London: 
J.  M.  Dent  &  Co.  New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.  1907. 

Boyden :  Echoes  from  Hospital  and  White  House.  A  Record  of 
Mrs.  Rebecca  R.  Pomroy's  Experience  in  War-Times.  By 
Anna  L.  Boyden.  Boston:  D.  Lothrop  &  Co.  1884. 


310     A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED 

Brady :  Washington  and  Lincoln.  A  comparison,  a  contrast,  and 
a  consequence.  An  address  delivered  on  June  18,  1904,  at  Val- 
ley Forge,  Penna.  before  the  Pennsylvania  Society  of  Sons  of 
the  Revolution:  to  commemorate  the  abandonment  of  the 
camp  by  the  continental  army  in  1778.  By  Cyrus  Townsend 
Brady.  Philadelphia:  Sons  of  the  Revolution,  Pennsylvania 
Society  Publications.  1904. 

Brockett:  The  Life  and  Times  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Sixteenth 
President  of  the  United  States.  By  L.  P.  Brockett,  M.D. 
Philadelphia:  Bradley  &  Co.  1865. 

Brooks :  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Downfall  of  American  Slavery. 
By  Noah  Brooks.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  1896. 

Brougham's  Works:  Works  of  Henry  Peter  Brougham,  First 
Baron  Brougham  and  Vaux.  Seven  volumes.  Edinburgh: 
Adam  and  Charles  Black.  1872. 

Browne :  The  Every-day  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Lincoln's  life 
and  character  portrayed  by  those  who  knew  him.  Prepared  and 
arranged  by  Francis  F.  Browne.  St.  Louis:  William  G.  Hills-. 
1896. 

Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men :  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Men  of 
his  Time.  By  Robert  H.  Browne,  M.D.  Two  volumes.  Cin- 
cinnati:  Jennings  &  Pye.  New  York:  Eaton  &  Mains.  1901. 

Campbell's  Reports :  Reports  of  cases  determined  at  nisi  prius  in 

the  courts  of  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas,  and  on  Circuit. 

Four  Volumes.  By  John,  Baron  Campbell.  New  York:  Riley. 

1810-1816. 
Carpenter :  The  Inner  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.    Six  Months  at 

the  White  House.   By  F.  B.  Carpenter.   New  York:  Kurd  & 

Hough  ton.   1867. 
Caton :  Miscellanies.   By  John  Dean  Caton.   Boston:  Hough  ton, 

Osgood  &  Co.   1880. 
Chiniquy  :  Fifty  years  in  the  Church  of  Rome.     By  Father 

Chiniquy,  the  apostle  of  temperance  in  Canada.   3d  Edition. 

Chicago:  Craig  &  Barlow.   1886. 

Chittenden :  Recollections  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  Adminis- 
tration. By  L.  E.  Chittenden,  his  Register  of  the  Treasury. 

New  York:  Harper  &  Bros.   1891. 
Clarke:  James  Freeman  Clarke.    Autobiography,  Diary,  and 

Correspondence.  Edited  by  Edward  Everett  Hale.  Boston  and 

New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1891. 


A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED     311 

Coffin:  Abraham  Lincoln.    By  Charles  Carleton  Coffin.    New 

York:  Harper  &  Bros.   1893. 
Curtis' s  Lincoln:   The   True  Abraham  Lincoln.     By   William 

Eleroy  Curtis.  Philadelphia  and  London:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 

1904. 

Davidson :  A  Complete  History  of  Illinois  from  1673  to  1873.  By 
Alexander  Davidson  and  Bernard  Stuve.  Springfield:  Illinois 
Journal  Co.  1874. 

Debates:  Political  Debates  between  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  the  Celebrated  Campaign  of  1858  in 
Illinois.  Including  the  preceding  speeches  of  each  at  Chicago, 
Springfield,  etc.  Also  the  Two  Great  Speeches  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  Ohio  in  1859.  Cleveland:  0.  S.  Hubbell  &  Co. 
1895. 

Dodge :  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  evolution  of  his  literary  style.  By 
Daniel  Kilham  Dodge.  Champaign,  111.:  University  of  Illinois. 
1900. 

Douglass:  Life  and  Times  of  Frederick  Douglass.  Written  by 
himself.  His  early  life  as  a  slave,  his  escape  from  bondage,  and 
his  complete  history  to  the  present  time.  With  an  introduc- 
tion by  Mr.  George  L.  Ruffin  of  Boston.  Hartford,  Conn.: 
Park  Publishing  Co.  1881. 

Edmonds :  Facts  and  Falsehoods  concerning  the  war  on  the  South, 
1861-1865.  By  George  Edmonds.  Memphis,  Tenn.:  Taylor 
&  Co.  1904. 

Flower :  Edwin  McMasters  Stanton,  the  Autocrat  of  the  Rebel- 
lion, Emancipation,  and  Reconstruction.  By  Frank  Abial 
Flower.  Akron,  Ohio :  The  Saalfield  Publishing  Co.  1905. 

French :  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Liberator.  A  biographical  sketch. 
By  Charles  Wallace  French.  New  York :  Funk  &  Wagnalls. 
1891. 

Gallaher :  Best  Lincoln  Stories,  tersely  told.  By  J.  E.  Gallaher. 
Chicago:  James  E.  Gallaher  &  Co.  1898. 

Gillespie :  Recollections  of  early  Illinois  and  her  noted  men.  Read 
before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  March  16,  1880.  By 
Hon.  Joseph  Gillespie,  Judge  of  Circuit  Court  of  Madison 
County  District.  Chicago:  Fergus  Printing  Co.  1880. 


3i2    A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED 

Greeley:  Greeley  on  Lincoln.  With  Mr.  Greeley's  Letters  to 
Charles  A.  Dana  and  a  Lady  Friend.  To  which  are  added 
reminiscences  of  Horace  Greeley.  Edited  by  Joel  Benton. 
New  York :  The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co.  1893. 

Gridley :  The  Story  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  the  Journey  from  the 
Log  Cabin  to  the  White  House.  By  Eleanor  Gridley,  Secretary 
of  the  Lincoln  Log  Cabin  Association.  Copyright,  1902,  by 
Eleanor  Gridley. 

Gridley' s  Defense:  Lincoln's  Defense  of  Duff  Armstrong.  The 
story  of  the  trial  and  the  celebrated  almanac.  By  J.  N.  Gridley. 
Reprint  from  the  Journal  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  : 
April,  1910. 

Hamlin:  The  Life  and  Times  of  Hannibal  Hamlin.  By  his 
grandson,  Charles  Eugene  Hamlin.  Cambridge:  The  Riverside 
Press.  1899. 

Hanaford:  Abraham  Lincoln:  His  Life  and  Public  Services.  By 
Mrs.  P.  A.  Hanaford.  Boston:  B.  B.  Russell  &  Co.  1865. 

Hapgood :  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Man  of  the  People.  By  Norman 
Hapgood.  New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company.  1899. 

Hart's  Sketch :  A  Biographical  Sketch  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By 
Charles  Henry  Hart.  Reprinted  from  the  introduction  to  Bib- 
liographia  Lincolniana.  Albany:  Munsell.  1870. 

Haynie :  The  Captains  and  the  Kings.  Anecdotes  and  biographi- 
cal notes  on  contemporary  celebrities.  By  Henry  Haynie.  New 
York:  Frederick  A.  Stokes  Co.  1904. 

Herndon :  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  By 
William  H.  Herndon  and  Jesse  W.  Weik.  With  an  introduction 
by  Horace  White.  Illustrated.  In  Two  Volumes.  New  York: 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  1896. 

Hill:  Lincoln,  The  Lawyer.  By  Frederick  Trevor  Hill.  New 
York:  The  Century  Company.  1906. 

Hilliard's  Memoir :  Politics  and  Pen  Pictures  at  home  and  abroad. 
By  Henry  Washington  Hilliard.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons.  1892. 

Hitchcock:  Nancy  Hanks.  The  Story  of  Abraham  Lincoln's 
Mother.  By  Caroline  Hanks  Hitchcock.  New  York:  Double- 
day  &  McClure  Co.  1899. 

Hobson :  Footprints  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Presenting  Many  In- 
teresting Facts,  Reminiscences,  and  Illustrations  Never  Before 
Published.  By  J.  T.  Hobson,  D.D.,  LL.B.,  author  of  "The 


A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED    313 

Lincoln  Year  Book."    Dayton,  Ohio:    The  Otterbein  Press. 

1909. 
Holland:  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.    By  J.  G.  Holland. 

Springfield,  Mass.:  Gurdon  Bill.   1866. 
Howells :  Lives  and  Speeches  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Hannibal 

Hamlin.  By  W.  D.  Howells  and  John  L.  Hayes.  Columbus,  O. : 

Follett,  Foster  &  Co.   1860. 

Irelan:  The  Republic;  or  A  History  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  The  Administrations,  From  the  Monarchic  Colonial 
Days  to  the  Present  Times.  By  John  Robert  Irelan,  M.D.  In 
Eighteen  Volumes.  Chicago:  Fairbanks  and  Palmer  Publish- 
ing Co.  1888. 

Jayne :  Abraham  Lincoln.  Personal  Reminiscences  of  the  mar- 
tyred President.  An  address  delivered  by  William  Jayne  to  the 
Grand  Army  Hall  and  Memorial  Association,  February  12, 
1900.  Chicago:  The  Grand  Army  Hall  and  Memorial  Assn. 
1908. 

Jennings :  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Greatest  American.  By  Janet 
Jennings.  Dedicated  to  the  plain  people  of  the  Nation  he 
saved  —  To  the  University  of  Wisconsin  that  honors  his  mem- 
ory. Copyright,  1909,  by  Janet  Jennings.  Madison,  Wis. 

Jones:  Lincoln,  Stanton,  and  Grant.  Historical  Sketches.  By 
Major  Evan  Rowland  Jones.  London:  Frederick  Warne  &  Co. 
1875- 

Keckley :  Behind  the  Scenes.  By  Elizabeth  Keckley,  formerly  a 
slave,  but  more  recently  modiste,  and  friend  of  Mrs.  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Or,  Thirty  Years  a  Slave,  and  Four  Years  in  the 
White  House.  New  York:  G.  W.  Carleton  &  Co.  1868. 

Ketcham :  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Henry  Ketcham. 
New  York:  A.  L.  Burt  Co.  1901. 

Koerner:  Memoirs.  Life  sketches  written  at  the  suggestion  of  his 
children.  By  Gustav  Philipp  Koerner.  Edited  by  Thomas  J. 
McCormack.  2  Volumes.  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa:  The  Torch 
Press.  1909. 

Lamon:  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  from  his  Birth  to  his  In- 
auguration as  President.  By  Ward  H.  Lamon.  Boston :  James 
R.  Osgood  &  Co.  1872. 


314     A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED 

Lamon' s  Recollections:  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  1847- 
65.  By  Ward  Hill  Lamon.  Edited  by  Dorothy  Lamon. 
Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.  1895. 

Larwood's  Humor  of  Law:  Humor  of  the  Law.  Forensic  anecdotes. 
By  Jacob  Larwood  [pseudonym  for  L.  R.  Sadler].  London: 
Chatto  &  Windus.  1903. 

Leland:  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the 
United  States.  By  Charles  Godfrey  Leland.  New  York: 
Merrill  &  Baker.  1879. 

Lewis's  Great  American  Lawyers:  Great  American  Lawyers.  A 
history  of  the  legal  profession  in  America.  ;  (University  Edi- 
tion.) Eight  volumes.  Edited  by  William  Draper  Lewis. 
Philadelphia:  The  John  C.  Winston  Co.  1907-1909. 

Liber  Scriptorum:  The  First  Book  of  the  Authors'  Club.  Liber 
Scriptorum.  New  York:  Published  by  the  Authors'  Club. 

1893- 
Lincoln  and  Douglas:  Abraham  Lincoln.   A  Paper  Read  before 

The  Royal  Historical  Society,  London,  June  i§>  1881.  By  Hon. 

Isaac  N.  Arnold,  F.R.H.S.    Stephen  A.  Douglas:  An  Eulogy 

Delivered  before  the  Chicago  University,  July  3,  1861.    By 

Hon.  James  W.  Sheahan.     Chicago:   Fergus  Printing  Co. 

1881. 
Lincolnics:  Familiar  Sayings  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Collected  and 

Edited  by  Henry  Llewellyn  Williams.  New  York  and  London: 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.   1906. 
Ludlow:  President  Lincoln,  Self -Pour  tray  ed.   By  John  Malcolm 

Ludlow.  Published  for  the  benefit  of  the  British  Foreign  Freed- 

men's  Aid  Society.    London:   Alfred  W.  Bennett;  Alexander 

Strahan;  Hamilton,  Adams  &  Co.   1866. 

McCulloch :  Men  and  Measures  of  Half  a  Century.  Sketches  and 
Comments.  By  Hugh  McCulloch.  New  York:  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons.  1889. 

MacChesney:  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  Tribute  of  a  Century, 
1809-1909.  Commemorative  of  the  Lincoln  Centenary  and  con- 
taining the  principal  speeches  made  in  connection  therewith. 
Edited  by  Nathan  William  MacChesney.  Chicago:  A.  C. 
McClurg  &  Co.  1910. 

McClure's  Stories:  Abraham  Lincoln's  Stories  and  Speeches. 
Edited  by  J.  B.McClure,  A.M.  Chicago:  Rhodes  &  McClure 
Publishing  Co.  1899. 


A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED    315 

McClure's  Yarns:  "Abe"  Lincoln's  Yarns  and  Stories.  A  com- 
plete collection  of  the  funny  and  witty  anecdotes  that  made 
Lincoln  famous  as  America's  Greatest  Story  Teller.  With  in- 
troduction and  anecdotes  by  Colonel  Alexander  K.  McClure  of 
the  Philadelphia  Times,  a  personal  friend  and  adviser  of  the 
Story-Telling  President.  The  Story  of  Lincoln's  Life  told  by 
himself  in  his  stories.  Wit  and  Humor  of  the  War,  the  Courts, 
the  Backwoods,  and  the  White  House.  Copyright  by  Henry 
Neil,  1901. 

Magruder's  Marshall :  John  Marshall.  By  Allan  B.  Magruder. 
Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1899. 

Markens :  President  Lincoln  and  the  Jews.  By  Isaac  Markens. 
New  York:  Printed  for  the  Author.  1909. 

Master :  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men.  A  Study  in  Character.  By 
Alonzo  Rothschild.  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin 
Company.  1906. 

Merrick's  Narrative :  Old  Times  on  the  Upper  Mississippi.  The 
Recollections  of  a  Steam-Boat  Pilot  from  1854  to  1863.  By 
George  Byron  Merrick.  Cleveland,  Ohio:  The  Arthur  H.  Clark 
Co.  1909. 

Morgan :  Abraham  Lincoln,  The  Boy  and  the  Man.  By  James 
Morgan.  New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company.  1908. 

Morgan's  Henry :  The  True  Patrick  Henry.  By  George  Morgan. 
Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.  1907. 

Morse :  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.  Two  volumes. 
Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1896. 

Newton :  Lincoln  and  Herndon.  By  Joseph  Fort  Newton.  Cedar 
Rapids,  Iowa:  The  Torch  Press.  1910. 

Nicolay :  A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Condensed  from 
Nicolay  and  Hay's  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  John  G.  Nicolay. 
New  York:  The  Century  Company.  1904. 

Nicolay' s  Boys'  Life :  The  Boys'  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By 
Helen  Nicolay.  New  York:  The  Century  Company.  1906. 

Nicolay  £f  Hay :  Abraham  Lincoln,  A  History.  By  John  G.  Nico- 
lay and  John  Hay.  Ten  Volumes.  New  York:  The  Century 
Company.  1890. 

Oldroyd:  The  Lincoln  Memorial.  Album-Immortelles.  Original 
Life  Pictures,  with  autographs,  from  the  hands  and  hearts  of 
eminent  Americans  and  Europeans,  contemporaries  of  the  great 
martyr  to  liberty,  Abraham  Lincoln.  Together  with  extracts 


316    A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED 

from  his  speeches,  letters,  and  sayings.  Collected  and  edited 
by  Osborn  H.  Oldroyd.  With  an  introduction  by  Matthew 
Simpson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  a  sketch  of  the  patriot's  life  by 
Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Chicago:  Gem  Publishing  House. 
1883. 

Onstot :  Pioneers  of  Menard  and  Mason  Counties.  Made  up  of 
personal  reminiscences  of  an  early  life  in  Menard  County, 
which  we  gathered  in  a  Salem  life  from  1830  to  1840,  and  a 
Petersburg  life  from  1840  to  1850,  including  personal  reminis- 
cences of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Peter  Cartright.  By  T.  G. 
Onstot.  Forest  City,  Illinois:  T.  G.  Onstot.  1902. 

Parkinson's  Tour  in  America:  A  tour  in  America,  in  1798,  1799, 
and  1800.  Exhibiting  sketches  of  society  and  manners,  and  a 
particular  account  of  the  American  system  of  agriculture.  By 
Richard  Parkinson.  London:  J.  Harding.  1805. 

Paid :  Massachusetts'  practice  with  reference  to  proceedings  be- 
fore masters  and  auditors,  and  their  reports.  Boston:  Little, 
Brown  &  Co.  1909. 

Phillips' s,  Men  who  knew :  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  some  men  who 
knew  him.  Being  personal  recollections  of  Judge  Owen  T. 
Reeves,  Hon.  Jas.  S.  Ewing,  Col.  Richard  P.  Morgan,  Judge 
Franklin  Blades,  John  W.  Bunn.  With  introduction  by  Hon. 
Isaac  N.  Phillips.  Bloomington,  111. :  Pantagraph  Printing  and 
Stationery  Co.  1910. 

Pratt :  Lincoln  in  Story.  The  Life  of  the  Martyr-President  told 
in  Authenticated  Anecdotes.  Edited  by  Silas  G.  Pratt.  Illus- 
trated. New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  1901. 

Ram:  A  treatise  on  facts  as  subjects  of  inquiry  by  a  jury. 
Fourth  American  Edition.  Edited  by  John  Townshend,  and 
additional  notes  by  Charles  F.  Beach,  Jr.  Also  appendix. 
New  York:  Baker,  Voorhis  &  Co,  1890. 

Raymond :  The  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Six- 
teenth President  of  the  United  States,  together  with  his  State 
Papers.  By  Henry  J.  Raymond.  To  which  are  added  anecdotes 
and  personal  reminiscences  of  President  Lincoln.  By  Frank  B. 
Carpenter.  New  York:  Derby  &  Miller.  1865. 

Rice :  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  distinguished  men 
of  his  time.  Collected  and  edited  by  Allen  Thorndike  Rice. 
New  York:  The  North  American  Review.  1888. 


A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED    317 

Salkeld's  Reports:  Reports  in  French  and  English,  containing 
cases  heard  and  determined  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench,  dur- 
ing the  time  that  Sir  Robert  Foster,  Sir  Robert  Hyde,  and  Sir 
John  Kelyng  were  chief  Justices  there,  as  also  of  certain  cases 
in  other  courts  at  Westminster  during  that  time,  ad  Edition. 
Two  Volumes.  Translated  into  English  by  Mr.  Serjeant 
Salkeld  and  others.  London:  Browne.  1722. 

Schurz :  The  Reminiscences  of  Carl  Schurz.  Three  Volumes.  New 
York:  The  McClure  Company.  1907-1908. 

Schurz' s  Essay :  Abraham  Lincoln.  An  Essay.  By  Carl  Schurz. 
Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.  1892. 

Scripps :  Tribune  Tracts  No.  6.  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  En- 
tered according  to  act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1860  by  Horace 
Greeley  and  Company  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District  of  New 
York. 

Selby:  Stories  and  Speeches  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Including 
stories  of  Lincoln's  early  life,  stories  of  Lincoln  as  a  lawyer, 
Presidential  incidents,  stories  of  the  war,  etc.,  etc.  Lincoln's 
Letters  and  Great  Speeches  Chronologically  arranged;  with 
Biographical  Sketch  by  Paul  Selby  (Associate  Editor  of  the 
Encyclopedia  of  Illinois).  Fully  Illustrated.  Chicago:  Thomp- 
son &  Thomas.  1900. 

Sheppard:  Great  Americans  of  History:  Abraham  Lincoln.  A 
Character  Sketch.  By  Robert  Dickinson  Sheppard,  D.D. 
With  supplementary  essay,  by  G.  Mercer  Adam.  Together 
with  Anecdotes,  Characteristics,  and  Chronology.  Milwaukee: 
H.  G.  Campbell  Publishing  Co.  1903. 

Speed :  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Notes  of  a  Visit 
to  California.  Two  Lectures  by  Joshua  F.  Speed.  With  a  sketch 
of  his  Life.  Louisville:  John  P.  Morton  &  Co.  1884. 

Stephens:  Recollections  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens.  His  Diary, 
kept  when  a  prisoner  at  Fort  Warren,  Boston  Harbor,  1865; 
giving  incidents  and  reflections  on  his  prison  life  and  some 
letters  and  reminiscences.  Edited,  with  a  biographical  study, 
by  Myrta  Lockett  Avary.  New  York:  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co. 
1910. 

Stevens' s  Black  Hawk :  The  Black  Hawk  War,  including  a  review 
of  Black  Hawk's  life.  Chicago:  Stevens.  1903. 

Stoddard :  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  By 
William  O.  Stoddard,  one  of  President  Lincoln's  Private 


3i8    A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED 

Secretaries  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  New  York: 
Fords,  Howard  &  Hulbert.  1896. 

Stovall:  Robert  Toombs.  Statesman,  Speaker,  Soldier,  Sage. 
By  Pleasant  A.  Stovall.  New  York:  Cassell  Publishing  Co. 
1892. 

Stoive :  Men  of  Our  Times,  or  Leading  Patriots  of  the  Day.  Being 
a  narrative  of  the  lives  and  deeds  of  Statesmen,  Generals,  and 
Orators.  By  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  Hertford :  Hartford  Pub- 
lishing Co.  1868. 

Sumner :  The  Promises  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Eu- 
logy on  Abraham  Lincoln,  delivered  by  Charles  Sumner  before 
the  municipal  authorities  of  the  City  of  Boston,  June  i,  1865. 
Boston:  Farwell  &  Co.,  Printers  to  the  City.  1865. 

TarbelVs  Early  Life :  The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Con- 
taining many  unpublished  documents  and  unpublished  remi- 
niscences of  Lincoln's  early  friends.  By  Ida  M.  Tarbell, 
assisted  by  J.  McCan  Davis.  New  York:  S.  S.  McClure. 
1896. 

Tarbell:  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Drawn  from  original 
sources  and  containing  many  speeches,  letters,  and  telegrams 
hitherto  unpublished.  Two  Volumes.  By  Ida  M.  Tarbell. 
New  York:  The  Doubleday  &  McClure  Co.  1900. 

Thayer :  The  Pioneer  Boy  and  How  He  Became  President.  By 
William  M.  Thayer.  Boston:  Walker,  Wise  &  Company. 
1864. 

Trevelyan's  Fox :  The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox.  By 
Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan.  New  York:  Harper  &  Bros.  1880. 

Ward :  Abraham  Lincoln.  Tributes  from  his  associates.  Reminis- 
cences of  soldiers,  statesmen,  and  citizens.  With  introduction 
by  The  Rev.  William  Hayes  Ward,  D.D.  New  York:  Thomas 
Y.  Crowell  &  Co.  1895. 

Whipple :  The  Story-Life  of  Lincoln.  A  Biography  composed  of 
Five  Hundred  True  Stories,  told  by  Abraham  Lincoln  and  his 
friends,  selected  from  all  authentic  sources,  and  fitted  together 
in  order,  forming  His  Complete  Life  History.  By  Wayne 
Whipple.  Memorial  Edition.  Issued  to  commemorate  the 
looth  Anniversary  of  Lincoln's  Birth.  Copyright,  1908,  by 
Wayne  Whipple. 

White :  Abraham  Lincoln  in  1854.  An  address  delivered  before  the 


A    LIST    OF    BOOKS    CITED    319 

Illinois  State  Historical  Society.  By  Horace  White.  January 
30,  1908.  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  Publication. 

White,  Money  and  Banking :  Money  and  Banking,  illustrated  by 
American  history.  By  Horace  White.  Boston:  Ginn  &  Co. 
1896. 

Whitney:  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln.  With  Sketches  of 
Generals  Grant,  Sherman,  and  McClellan,  Judge  Davis, 
Leonard  Swett,  and  other  contemporaries.  By  Henry  C. 
Whitney.  Boston:  Estes  &  Lauriat.  1892. 

Whitney's  Life :  Life  of  Lincoln.  By  Henry  C.  Whitney.  Edited 
by  Marion  Mills  Miller,  Litt.D.  Two  Volumes:  Vol.  I.,  Lin- 
coln, The  Citizen;  Vol.  II.,  Lincoln,  The  President.  New 
York:  The  Baker  &  Taylor  Company.  1908. 

Williams :  The  Burden  Bearer,  an  Epic  of  Lincoln.  By  Francis 
Williams.  Philadelphia:  Jacobs  &  Co.  1908. 

Wilson's  Washington :  George  Washington.  By  Woodrow  Wilson. 
Illustrated  by  Howard  Pyle.  New  York:  Harper  &  Bros.  1905. 

Works :  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Edited  by  John 
G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay.  With  a  General  Introduction  by 
Richard  Watson  Gilder,  and  Special  Articles  by  Other  Emi- 
nent Persons.  New  and  Enlarged  Edition.  Twelve  Volumes. 
New  York:  Francis  D.  Tandy  Company.  1905. 


NOTES 


NOTES 

THE  author  would  have  wished  to  acknowledge 
his  indebtedness  to  the  many  admirers  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  who  so  cheerfully  and  readily  replied  to  his 
inquiries.  The  responsiveness  of  all  to  whom  he 
applied  for  information  and  particularly  the  eager- 
ness with  which  collectors  entrusted  precious  pam- 
phlets and  scrap-books  to  him  were  a  constant  source 
of  gratification  and  encouragement. 

In  the  following  notes  there  are  frequent  references 
to  secondary  authorities.  They  are  given,  not  to 
authenticate  what  has  been  said  on  direct  authority, 
but  for  the  convenience  of  readers  and  the  service 
of  students.  The  reader  may  find  one  book  more 
available  than  another;  and  the  student,  who  may 
wish  to  collate  all  that  has  been  published  on  a  sub- 
ject, will  have  at  hand  an  adequate  bibliography. 

CHAPTER  I 

1.  Henry  Pirtle,  quoted  in  Herndon,  i,  7.    See,  also,  W.  F. 
Booker,  in  Barrett  (New),  i,  6;  Irelan,  xyi,  21. 

2.  George  B.  Balch  in  Browne,  87;  Samuel  Haycraft  in  Bar- 
rett (New),  i,  8;  Rev.  Thomas  Goodwin,  ibid-,  115. 

3.  Atkinson,  44-45. 

4.  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  were  married  near 
Beechland,  in  Washington  County,  Kentucky,  on  the  I2th 
of  June,  1806. 

5.  Usher  F.  Linder,  who  was  born  in  Hardin  County,  Ken- 
tucky, became  a  prominent  Democratic  leader  in  Illinois. 
Delivering  a  eulogy  of  Lincoln  in  1865  and  speaking  from  his 
recollections  of  the  old  Kentucky  days,  he  said :  "  They  were 


324  NOTES 

a  good  family.  They  were  poor,  and  the  very  poorest  peo- 
ple, I  might  say,  of  the  middle  classes,  but  they  were  true." 

6.  Sarah  Lincoln  was  born  February  10,  1807.    The  removal 
to  Nolin  Creek  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  following 
year. 

7.  Speed,   30;    Browne,   489;   Barrett    (New),   ii,    122-23; 
Morgan,  255-56. 

8.  The  reader  who  wishes  to  follow  Thomas  Lincoln  in  his 
migrations  is  referred  for  some  of  the  fuller  accounts  to: 
Lamon,  12-15,  19-22,  25-26,  73-75;  Herndon,  i,  15-18, 
57-61 ;  Holland,  24-26,  38-41;  Brockett,  37-40,  51-54,  57; 
Barrett,  21-24,  3O~34;  Barrett  (New),  i,  9-10,  12-14,  25- 
26;  Brooks,  6,  8-13,  44-45;  Browne,  42,  45-51,  80-85; 
Tarbell's  Early  Life,  40,  51-55,  94-101;  Tarbell,  i,  13-15, 
18-19,  45-49.  59;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  24-30,  45-47;  Whit- 
ney's Life,  i,  21-28,  57-64;  Stoddard,  10-18,  57-59;  Coffin, 
18-29,  46-49;  Irelan,  xvi,  34-40,  64-65;  Curtis's  Lincoln, 
19-22,  26,  30;  Works,  vi,  26-31. 

9.  Gridley,  47-48.  For  the  story  of  a  previous  speculation,  of 
a  similar  nature,  that  resulted  disastrously,  see  Dr.  C.  C. 
Graham  in  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  233;  also,  Hitchcock,  93- 
97,  and  Gridley,  47.   The  loss  of  the  cargo  by  an  accident 
to  the  vessel,  however,  as  told  by  Dr.  Graham,  bears  a 
striking,  perhaps  suspicious  resemblance  to  what  befell 
Thomas  Lincoln  (note  8)  when  he  tried  to  move  his  be- 
longings by  water  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana. 

10.  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  died  at  Little  Pigeon  Creek,  In- 
diana, on  October  5,  1818,  in  her  thirty-fifth  year.  • 

11.  Holland,  23;  Arnold  in  Oldroyd,  33;  Barrett  (New),  i,  16; 
Browne,  43-44;  Coffin,  28;  Ketcham,  12;  Hart's  Sketch,  5; 
L.  S.  Portor,  in  the  Woman's  Home  Companion^  February 
1909,  pp.  10,  64;  see,  also,  Speed,  19.   Attention  is  called 
to  the  slight  variations  in  the  language  as  reported  by  these 
several  writers. 

12.  In  the  Little  Pigeon  Creek  cabin  were  Abraham,  his  sister 
Sarah,  and  cousin  Dennis  Hanks,  sometimes  called  Dennis 
Friend,  whom  luckless  chance  had  made  a  member  of  the 
Lincoln  family.    The  Johnston  children  comprised  John 
D.,  Sarah,  and  Matilda. 

13.  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Sarah  Bush  Johnston  were  married 
on  December  2,  1819.  The  episode  of  the  debts  is  related 


NOTES  325 

in  Barrett  (New),  i,  17;  Herndon,  i,  26;  Lamon,  29;  Coffin, 
31;  McClure's  Stories,  272-74;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  52. 

14.  But  see  charges  or  surmises  that  Thomas  Lincoln,  in  his 
anxiety  to  win  Mrs.  Johnston,  had  misrepresented  condi- 
tions at  home:  Lamon,  n,  30-31;  also  Herndon,  i,  27; 
Brooks,  28;  French,  28;  Leland,  18;  Irelan,  xvi,  44;  Hap- 
good,  9;  Stoddard,  21-22,  24;  Sheppard,  118.  These  latter 
writers,  following  the  lead  of  Lamon,  have  done  so,  appar- 
ently, to  explain  what  needs  no  historical  explanation  — 
an  improvident  marriage;  and  Lamon  quotes  neither  chap- 
ter nor  verse  for  the  faith,  or,  more  accurately  speaking,  the 
lack  of  faith,  that  is  in  him.    On  the  other  hand,  Cousin 
Dennis  Hanks,  though  not  always  a  trustworthy  witness, 
offers  what  look  like  sufficient  reasons  for  the  lady's  course. 
"  Tom,"  he  says,  "  had  a  kind  o'  way  with  the  women,  an' 
maybe  it  was  somethin'  she  tuk  comfort  in  to  have  a  man 
that  did  n't  drink  an'  cuss  none."   (Atkinson,  21.) 

15.  Irelan,  xvi,  26-27,  4*J  Lamon,  32;  Leland,  20;  Jones,  4; 
Hapgood,  8;  Janes,  7;  E.  I.  Lewis  in  St.  Louis  Globe-Demo- 
crat, February  12,  1899. 

16.  Brooks,  28;  Short  Autobiography,  in  Works,  vi,  27. 

17.  Danville  (111.)  News,  February  12,  1904. 

1 8.  Probably  Webster's  American  Spelling  Book,  Dilworth's 
Spelling  Book,  Pike's  Arithmetic,  Murray's  English  Reader, 
Scott's  Lessons  in  Elocution,  and  the  Kentucky  Preceptor, 
Lincoln  studied  Kirkham's  Grammar  after  he  left  home. 
See  Dodge,  4-6;  Sumner,  ix,  375;  Scripps,  3;  Herndon,  i, 
34,  44-45,  note,  75~76;  Lamon,  37,  note,  50;  Hitchcock, 
87;  Atkinson,  18;  Leland,  22;  Browne,  70,  96;  Brooks,  54; 
Morse,  i,  19;  Holland,  46;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  124-25, 
132;  Tarbell,  i,  66-67;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  84;  Nicolay, 
25-26;  Nicolay 's  Boy's  Life,  36-37;  Ketcham,  66;  Howells, 
29-30;  Irelan,  xvi,  96-97;  Stoddard,  70;  Browne's  Lincoln 
and  Men,  i,  158-59;  Jones,  8. 

19.  Scripps,  3;  Speed,  38;  Herndon,  i,  36;  Lamon,  37,  57  note; 
Tarbell,  i,  29-34;  Binns,  18-19;  Atkinson,  23-27;  Selby, 
45;  Stowe,  15;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  35;  Oldroyd,  33-34; 
McClure's  Stories,  22-23;  Schurz's  Essay,  4-5;  Chittenden, 
433-34;  Nicolay,  14;  Nicolay's  Boy's  Life,  23;  Morse,  i,  13; 
Swett's  Reminiscences,  in  Rice,  459;  Raymond,  22;  Hob- 
son,  30-31;  Barrett  (New),  i,  23-24;  Arnold,  21;  Brooks, 


326  NOTES 

23-24,  29-30;  Browne,  66-68 ;  Holland,  31 ;  Morgan,  19-21 ; 
Whitney's  Life,  i,  41-42;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  69-71; 
French,  24-25;  Hitchcock,  87-88;  Leland,  22;  Stoddard, 
32~33>  36-37>  43;  Sumner,  ix,  375;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  56- 
58;  Beach,  8-9;  H.  W.  Mabie,  in  the  Chautauquan,  April, 
1900,  pp.  33-34,  and  in  the  Outlook,  February  20,  1904,  pp. 
454-55-  See  also  infra,  p.  331. 

20.  According  to  most  of  our  authorities  this  was  the  book  by 
Mason  L.  Weems,  entitled  The  Life  of  George  Washington; 
with  curious  anecdotes,  equally  honourable  to  himself  and 
exemplary  to  his  young  countrymen.   But  Scripps  (3),  Ray- 
mond (21-22),  Brockett  (47),  and  Holland  (32)  are  appar- 
ently accurate  in  stating  that  the  work  was  Dr.  David 
Ramsay's  The  Life  of  Washington.    It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Mr.  Lincoln  himself,  looking  with  uncommon 
care  through  the  advance  sheets  of  Scripps's  biography, 
published  in  1860,  made  no  correction  as  to  the  name 
Ramsay  there  employed  in  connection  with  the  anecdote. 
Lincoln's  reference  to  Weems's  Life,  moreover,  in  the 
speech  at  Trenton  (Works,  vi,  150-51),  indicates  that  he 
had  read  that  book  during  his  early  childhood  —  some 
years  before  he  could  as  a  "tall  and  long-armed"  youth 
have  "  made  a  clean  sweep"  of  Crawford's  fodder-corn. 

21.  Herndon,  i,  52,  note. 

22.  For  the  fuller  accounts  of  this  episode  see:  Whitney's  Life, 
i,  42-43;  Arnold,  23;  Raymond,  21-22;  Lamon,  38,  50-51, 
55,  66,  note;  Scripps,  3;  Holland,  31-32;  Brockett,  47-48; 
Herndon,  i,  37,  52,  note;  Stoddard,  37-38;  French,  26; 
Irelan,  xvi,  55-56;  Brooks,  24-25;  Barrett,  25-26;  Browne, 
67,  69-70;  Bartlett,  116-17.   A  somewhat  fanciful  narra- 
tive may  be  read  in  Thayer,  120-30,  177. 

23.  Herndon,  i,  29-31 ;  Pratt,  11-12;  Hapgood,  18-19.  An  in- 
stance of  truth-telling  by  Lincoln,  regardless  of  impending 
punishment,  quite  after  the  Weems  manner,  is  related  by 
Thayer  (no-n),  in  his  story  about  the  broken  buck's  horn. 

24.  Lamon,  71. 

25.  How  serious  these  abuses  ultimately  became  may  be  in- 
ferred from  Merrick's  narrative  (174-80),  and  from  what 
Horace  White  says  on  the  subject,  in  Money  and  Banking, 
PP-  351-52:  — 

"  The  bewildering  state  of  the  paper  currency  before  the 


NOTES  327 

Civil  War  may  be  learned  from  the  numerous  bank-note  re- 
porters and  counterfeit  detectors  of  the  period.  It  was  the 
aim  of  these  publications  to  give  early  information  to  en- 
able the  public  to  avoid  spurious  and  worthless  notes  in 
circulation.  These  were  of  various  kinds:  (i)  ordinary  coun- 
terfeits; (2)  genuine  notes  altered  from  lower  denomina- 
tions to  higher  ones;  (3)  genuine  notes  of  failed  banks  al- 
tered to  the  names  of  solvent  banks;  (4)  genuine  notes  of 
solvent  banks  with  forged  signatures;  (5)  spurious  notes, 
such  as  those  of  banks  that  had  no  existence;  (6)  spurious 
notes  of  good  banks,  as  2o's  of  a  bank  that  never  issued 
2o's;  (7)  notes  of  old,  closed  banks  still  in  circulation. 

"The  number  of  counterfeit  and  spurious  notes  was 
quite  appalling,  and  disputes  between  payer  and  payee  as 
to  the  goodness  of  notes  were  of  frequent  occurrence, 
ranging  over  the  whole  gamut  of  doubts,  —  as  to  whether 
the  issuing  bank  was  sound  or  unsound,  whether  the  note 
was  genuine  or  counterfeit,  and,  if  sound  and  genuine, 
whether  the  discount  was  within  reasonable  limits." 

26.  For  a  severe,  though  manifestly  biased  comment  on  the 
bad  money  episode,  so  far  as  it  concerned  Lincoln,  see 
Edmonds,  47-48. 

27.  Wilson's  Washington,  11-12. 

28.  Hill,  219-20. 

29.  New  Salem,  Illinois,  when  Lincoln  took  up  his  residence 
there  in  the  summer  of  1831,  was  a  busy  little  village  of 
recent  origin,  near  the  west  bank  of  the  Sangamon  River, 
in  the  county  of  that  name.    Its  site  —  for  the  place  has 
long  since  fallen  into  decay  —  is  within  the  present  limits 
of  Menard  County,  about  twenty  miles  northwest  of 
Springfield. 

30.  The  anecdote  is  from  Parkinson's  Tour  in  America,  ii,  436- 
37  (London,  1805).    Whether  or  not  it  had  come  under 
Lincoln's  notice  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 

31.  William  McNeely,  in  Oldroyd,  393-94;  Browne,  104. 

32.  John  Rowan  Herndon,  in  Herndon,  i,  98. 

33.  Wrilliam  G.  Greene,  in  Browne,  116-17;  and  in  Onstot,  8l- 
83.   A  more  circumstantial  account,  based  on  correspond- 
ence with  Greene,  may  be  found  in  Coffin,  73-76.  See,  also, 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  iio-ii;  Herndon,  i,  98-99;  Lamon, 
136-37;  Tarbell,  i,  92;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  160;  Holland, 
54;  Brooks,  66. 


328  NOTES 

34.  Lincoln's  experience  with  Berry  reminds  one  of  Benjamin 
Franklin's  trials  with  his  partner  Hugh  Meredith,  who  was 
"  often  seen  drunk  in  the  streets,  and  playing  at  low  games 
in  the  ale  houses."   It  is  an  interesting  coincidence,  more- 
over, that  both  Franklin  and  Lincoln  were  aided,  at  these 
critical  junctures,  by  generous  friends. 

35.  Dennis  Hanks,  in  Atkinson,  50. 

36.  Leonard  Swett,  in  Rice,  465-66. 

37.  At  about  the  time  Abraham  Lincoln  thus  spoke  to  his 
creditors  in  Illinois,  a  young  man  in  far-away  Maine 
named  Hannibal  Hamlin,  destined  to  share  his  electoral 
honors,  used  somewhat  similar  language  under  correspond- 
ing circumstances.   He  had  gone  on  the  bond  of  a  certain 
deputy  sheriff  for  four  thousand  dollars.   That  officer  be- 
came a  defaulter,  and  the  people  who  had  claims  against 
him  looked  to  his  bondsmen.    Hamlin,  having  called  the 
creditors  together,  said:  "My  friends,  I  have  lived  among 
you  only  a  few  years,  but  I  think  you  know  that  I  keep  my 
word.   I  am  poor,  young,  and  struggling  for  an  honest  sup- 
port for  myself.  This  struggle  will  continue  right  among  you, 
my  neighbors.    I  am  unable  now  to  meet  this  just  debt; 
but  if  you  will  give  me  time,  and  God  will  give  me  strength, 
I  will  pay  off  every  dollar  I  owe  you,  even  if  it  takes  me  a 
lifetime  to  do  it." 

He  redeemed  his  promise  to  the  last  cent;  but  at  what 
cost  may  be  inferred  from  his  exclamation,  many  years 
later,  in  telling  the  story:  "  Heavens!  how  long  it  kept  my 
nose  on  the  grindstone." 

A  fuller  narrative  of  the  incident  may  be  found  in  Hamlin, 
46.  For  another  somewhat  similar  episode,  in  the  early  life 
of  Andrew  Jackson,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Brady,  56-57. 

38.  A  patron  of  Samuel  Hill's  store,  Harvey  Ross  who  carried 
the  mails,  once  told  how  he,  as  well  as  others,  was  impressed 
by   Lincoln's   straightforward   methods.     His   narrative 
which  belongs  perhaps  to  this  period  may  be  found  in 
Onstot,  76-77. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,"  said  Ross,  "was  very  attentive  to  busi- 
ness; was  kind  and  obliging  to  the  customers,  and  they  had 
so  much  confidence  in  his  honesty  that  they  preferred  to 
trade  with  him  rather  than  Hill.  This  was  true  of  the  ladies 
who  said  he  was  honest  and  would  tell  the  truth  about  the 


NOTES  329 

goods.  I  went  into  the  store  one  day  to  buy  a  pair  of  buck- 
skin gloves,  and  asked  him  if  he  had  a  pair  that  would  fit 
me.  He  threw  down  a  pair  on  the  counter:  'There  is  a 
pair  of  dogskin  gloves  that  I  think  will  fit  you,  and  you  can 
have  them  for  seventy-five  cents.'  When  he  called  them 
dogskin  I  was  surprised,  as  I  had  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing  before.  At  that  time  no  factory  gloves  had  been 
brought  into  the  county.  All  the  gloves  and  mittens  then 
worn  were  made  by  hand,  and  by  the  women  of  the  neigh- 
borhood from  tanned  deerskins,  and  the  Indians  did  the 
tanning.  A  large  buckskin  could  be  bought  for  fifty  to  sev- 
enty-five cents.  So  I  said  to  Lincoln:  'How  do  you  know 
they  are  dogskin?'  'Well,'  he  said,  'I'll  tell  you  how  I 
know  they  are  dogskin.  Jack  Clary's  dog  killed  Tom 
Watkins's  sheep,  and  Tom  Watkins's  boy  killed  the  dog,  old 
John  Mounts  tanned  the  dogskin,  and  Sally  Spears  made 
the  gloves,  and  that  is  the  way  I  know  they  are  dogskin 
gloves.'  So  I  asked  no  more,  but  paid  six  bits,  took  the 
gloves,  and  can  truly  say  that  I  have  worn  buckskin  and 
dogskin  gloves  for  sixty  years  and  never  found  a  pair  that 
did  me  such  service  as  the  pair  I  got  from  Lincoln." 

39.  Lincoln  to  George  Spears,  Works,  i,  n.  A  facsimile  of  the 
letter  is  reproduced  from  the  Menard-Salem-Lincoln  Sou- 
venir Album,  in  Tarbell,  i,  97. 

40.  Tarbell 's  Early  Life,  190,  note. 

41.  This  kind  act  is  attributed  to  James  Short  and  one  of  the 
Greenes,  —  whether  Bowling  or  William  G.  appears  to  be 
in  doubt.  See  Lamon,  138-39,  149-50;  Arnold,  41-42;  Hern- 
don,  i,  114-15;  Leland,  43-44;  Barrett  (New),  i,  40;  Morse, 
i,  42;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  33-34;  Stoddard,  88-89;  Irelan, 
xvi,  109;  Tarbell,  i,  105-06;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  188-90. 

42.  William  H.  Herndon,  Lincoln's  law  partner,  relates  (Hern- 
don,  i,  100):  "  He  was  a  long  time  meeting  these  claims, 
even  as  late  as  1848  sending  to  me  from  Washington  por- 
tions of  his  salary  as  Congressman  to  be  applied  on  the  un- 
paid remnant  of  the  Berry  and  Lincoln  indebtedness.   But 
in  time  he  extinguished  it  all,  even  to  the  last  penny." 

According  to  Nicolay  (36):  "  It  was  not  until  his  return 
from  Congress,  seventeen  years  after  the  purchase  of  the 
store,  that  he  finally  relieved  himself  of  the  last  installment 
of  his  'national  debt.'" 


330  NOTES 

43.  Several  decades  thereafter,  when  reference  was  made  in 
President  Lincoln's  hearing  to  the  large  tracts  of  valuable 
land  acquired  by  Surveyor-General  Edward  F.  Beale,  in 
California,  the  Executive  may  be  said  to  have  suffered  no 
twinges  of  conscience  if  he  remarked,  as  was  reported: 
"Yes,  they  say  Beale  is  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed." 

44.  Henry  McHenry,  in  Herndon,  i,  113. 

45.  The  Grigsby  affair.    (Master,  16-17.) 

46.  Frank  E.  Stevens,  in  Magazine  of  History,  February,  1905, 
pp.  86-90. 

47.  William  G.  Greene,  who  was  present,  so  quotes  Lincoln; 
but  Lamon  (in)  and  Stevens  (Black  Hawk,  283)  report 
him  to  have  said :  "  Boys,  the  man  actually  threw  me  once 
fair,  broadly  so;  and  the  second  time,  this  very  fall,  he 
threw  me  fairly,  though  not  so  apparently  so." 

48.  Magazine  of  History,  February,  1905,  pp.  86-90.   See  also 
Stevens's  Black  Hawk,  281-83;  Oldroyd,  516-17;  Browne, 
112-13;  Lamon,  109-12;  Herndon,  i,  87-88;  Nicolay  and 
Hay,  i,  94;  Thayer,  239-40;  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  1940- 
1946;  Master,  39-40. 

49.  The  whole  experience  left  a  deep  impression  in  Lincoln's 
mind.  After  his  first  nomination  to  the  Presidency,  he  re- 
ceived one  day  a  delegation  of  college  men,  among  whom 
was  Professor  Risdon  M.  Moore,  the  son  of  Jonathan,  that 
quondam  referee. 

"Which  of  the  Moore  families  do  you  belong  to?"  in- 
quired the  candidate,  with  a  twinkle  of  the  eye.  "  I  have  a 
grudge  against  one  of  them." 

To  which  the  Professor,  with  a  still  merrier  twinkle,  re- 
plied: "I  suppose  it  is  my  family  you  have  the  grudge 
against;  but  we  are  going  to  elect  you  President,  and  call 
it  even." 

Thereupon  Mr.  Lincoln,  narrating  to  those  who  were 
present  the  story  of  his  defeat  by  Thompson,  concluded 
with  the  words:  "  I  never  had  been  thrown  in  a  wrestling- 
match  until  the  man  from  that  company  did  it.  He  could 
have  thrown  a  grizzly  bear." 

Nor  did  the  reminiscences  concerning  that  memorable 
encounter  cease  there.  Discussing  former  days  with  old 
friends  who  visited  him  at  the  White  House,  President 
Lincoln  several  times  referred  to  the  occurrence.  One  of 


NOTES  331 

these  interviews  is  thus  related  by  Mr.  Greene:  "During 
the  rebellion,  in  1864,  I  had  occasion  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
his  office  at  Washington,  and,  after  having  recalled  many 
of  our  early  recollections,  he  said,  '  Bill,  whatever  became 
of  our  old  antagonist,  Thompson,  —  that  big  curly-headed 
fellow  who  threw  me  at  Rock  Island? '  I  replied  I  did  not 
know,  and  wondered  why  he  asked.  He  playfully  remarked 
that  if  he  knew  where  he  was  living,  he  would  give  him  a 
post-office,  by  way  of  showing  him  that  he  bore  him  no  ill- 
will." 

50.  Henry  McHenry,  in  Lamon,  154;  Browne,  104. 

51.  Confidence  in  Lincoln  as  an  arbitrator  continued  through 
his  later  career.  This  is  evinced  by  the  following  telegram, 
quoted  by  Hill  (250)  from  the  Orendorff  collection:  — 

To  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  CHICAGO,  Oct.  14,  1853- 

Springfield,  111. 

Can  you  come  here  immediately  and  act  as  arbitrator  in 
the  crossing  case  between  the  Illinois  Central  and  Northern 
Indiana  R.R.  Companies  if  you  should  be  appointed?  An- 
swer and  say  yes  if  possible. 

(Signed)    J.  F.  JOY. 

52.  Address  on  Benjamin  Ferguson,  delivered  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Washington  Temperance  Society  on  February  8, 
1842. 

53.  Lincoln  read  this  book  during  a  series  of  visits  that  he  made 
for  the  purpose  to  the  home  of  David  Turnham,  a  con- 
stable, who  owned  the  volume.    It  was  entitled:  "The 
Revised  Laws  of   Indiana,  adopted  and  enacted   by  the 
General  Assembly  at  their  eighth  session.  To  which  are  pre- 
fixed the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
Indiana,  and  sundry  other  documents  connected  with  the 
Political  History  of  the  Territory  and  State  of  Indiana.  Ar- 
ranged and  published  by  authority  of  the  General  As- 
sembly.   Corydon:  Printed  by  Carpenter  and  Douglass. 
1824." 

54.  Herndon,  i,  52;  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  72. 

55.  Alban  Jasper  Conant,  in  Liber  Scriptorum,  172;  and  in 
McClure's  Magazine,  March,  1909,  p.  514.  That  Lincoln's 


332  NOTES 

picture  of  close  application  was  not  overdrawn  may  be  in- 
ferred from  this  paragraph  in  Lamon  (140),  based  on  the 
recollections  of  an  old  settler:  "  '  He  used  to  read  law,'  says 
Henry  McHenry,  'in  1832  or  1833,  barefooted,  seated  in 
the  shade  of  a  tree,  and  would  grind  around  with  the  shade, 
just  opposite  Berry's  grocery  store,  a  few  feet  south  of  the 
door.'  He  occasionally  varied  the  attitude  by  lying  flat  on 
his  back,  and  '  putting  his  feet  up  the  tree,'  —  a  situation 
which  might  have  been  unfavorable  to  mental  application 
in  the  case  of  a  man  with  shorter  extremities."  See,  also: 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  112-13;  Herndon,  i,  101-02;  Browne, 
121-23. 

56.  Report  of  an  interview  by  Albert  B.  Orr,  with  C.  F.  War- 
den, in  the  McKeesport  (Pa.)  Times,  February  12,  1909; 
also  a  letter  from  Mr.  Orr  to  the  author. 

57.  In  response  to  the  writer's  inquiries  Henry  B.  Rankin  of 
Springfield,  Illinois,  at  one  time  a  clerk  in  Lincoln  and 
Herndon's  office,  furnished  a  statement  that  is  of  topo- 
graphical interest.   The  communication  was  addressed  to 
the  Hon.  James  R.  B.  Van  Cleave  of  that  city,  through 
whose  courtesy  it  is  here  published : 

"  The  route  Mr.  Lincoln  went  over,  in  and  out  of  Spring- 
field from  Salem  when  he  made  his  home  in  that  village  was 
entirely  on  the  south  side  of  the  Sangamon  river,  not  the 
north  as  the  travel  from  that  vicinity  has  been  for  the  past 
fifty  years.  There  was  no  bridge  over  the  Sangamon  river 
in  its  entire  length  while  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  Salem.  The 
first  bridge  over  this  river  was  built  in  the  early  '403  at 
the  then  Carpenter's  Mills  in  this  county.  The  next  at 
Petersburg  a  few  years  later,  in  the  '403,  and  via  Athens  in 

1843- 

"  Mr.  Lincoln's  trips  to  Springfield  were  usually  made  by 
the  road  as  now  located,  for  the  first  few  miles  bearing  south 
out  from  Salem,  —  from  that  on  into  the  city  there  have 
been  more  or  less  minor  changes  since,  at  various  places,  — 
on  to  the  junction  with  the  present  'Jacksonville  and 
Springfield  road,'  and  via  it,  entered  the  city  on  the  west. 
Quite  occasionally  he  walked  from  Salem  to  Springfield, 
and  these  trips  were  'across  country,'  skirting  the  bluffs 
and  breaks  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Sangamon  river  '  as 
the  crow  flies,'  —  by  shortest  angles,  some  five  miles  shorter 
trip  in. 


NOTES  333 

"  I  have  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  old  Lincoln  and  Hern- 
don  law  office  refer  to  these  trips  on  foot  into  the  city  across 
the  then  unfenced  prairie  and  woods.  So  many  writers 
about  Mr.  Lincoln's  early  years  have  traveled  over  the 
road  from  Springfield  to  Petersburg  via  Athens,  —  now  the 
nearest  and  always  chosen  one,  —  that  you  will  please  par- 
don me  for  the  stress  I  place  on  the  difference  between  the 
two  roads.  The  road  south  of  Salem  across  the  '  Rocky 
ford '  of  '  Rock  Creek,'  and  several  other  streams,  —  then 
called  '  creeks,'  had  to  bear  westerly  after  leaving  the  San- 
gamon  bottoms  south  of  Salem,  and  cross  these  creeks  at 
the  most  favorable  places  between  banks  best  fitted  to 
span  crude  bridges  over.  This  made  the  'foot-path  way' 
from  Springfield  to  Salem,  a  much  shorter  one  than  the 
wagon  road  between  them.  This  wagon  road  as  then  trav- 
eled was  fully  twenty-five  miles  between  Salem  and  the 
Capital  City." 

58.  A  reminder  of  this  toilsome  period  is  to  be  found,  many 
years  later,  in  the  letter  addressed  to  J.  M.  Brockman:  — 

SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS,  September  25,  1860. 
DEAR  SIR:  Yours  of  the  24th,  asking  "the  best  mode 
of  obtaining  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  law,"  is  re- 
ceived. The  mode  is  very  simple,  though  laborious  and 
tedious.  It  is  only  to  get  the  books  and  read  and  study 
them  carefully.  Begin  with  Blackstone's  "  Commentaries," 
and  after  reading  it  carefully  through,  say  twice,  take 
up  Chitty's  "  Pleadings,"  Greenleaf's  "  Evidence,"  and 
Story's  "  Equity,"  etc.,  in  succession.  Work,  work,  work, 
is  the  main  thing.  Yours  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

59.  The  Revised  Laws  of  Illinois,  edition  of  1833,  pp.  99-102, 
§i  and  §9.   Hill  (57-58)  is  the  only  writer  on  Lincoln  that 
has  taken  notice  of  this  prohibition. 

60.  There  appears  to  be  some  ground  for  controversy  as  to 
when  Lincoln  was  admitted  to  the  bar.   He,  himself,  pre- 
paring notes  of  his  life  for  the  Scripps  biography,  some- 
time during  1860,  wrote:  "  In  the  autumn  of  1836  he  ob- 
tained a  law  license."    (See  Works,  vi,  33.) 

And  Jesse  W.  Weik,  Herndon's  collaborator,  referring  to 


334  NOTES 

the  records,  states  (Century  Magazine,  June,  1904,  p.  279) : 
"  The  first  step  in  Lincoln's  legal  career  is  thus  set  forth  in 
an  entry  found  in  the  records  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  San- 
gamon  County,  Illinois,  dated  March  24,  1836.  '  It  is  or- 
dered by  the  Court  that  it  be  certified  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  a  person  of  good  moral  character.'  After  this 
necessary  preliminary,  as  appears  from  the  records  of  the 
clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court,  he  was  on  September  9  duly 
licensed  to  practise  in  all  the  courts  of  the  State." 

But  Hill  (61)  asserts: "  He  was  legally  qualified  on  March 
24, 1836,  and  his  professional  life  properly  dates  from  that 
day." 

Reaffirming  this  conclusion,  Mr.  Hill  writes  to  the  au- 
thor:" There  is  no  doubt  that  Lincoln  was  legally  admitted 
to  practice  March  24,  1836,  as  is  shown  by  the  papers  on 
file;  but  casting  back  to  find  out  when  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar,  Lincoln  undoubtedly  relied  upon  the  rolls  of  attor- 
neys for  the  year  1836,  in  which  his  name  appeared  Sep- 
tember 9th  of  that  year." 

Summarizing  the  facts,  Judge  John  P.  Hand,  of  the  Illi- 
nois Supreme  Court,  said  in  a  Lincoln  memorial  address 
delivered  on  February  n,  1909:  "He  was  licensed  as  an 
attorney,  September  9,  1836,  enrolled  March  I,  1837,  and 
commenced  practice  April  21, 1837."  (See  Illinois  Reports, 
ccxxxviii,  13;  and  MacChesney,  204.) 

Yet  beyond  a  doubt,  Lincoln  appeared  as  an  attorney  in 
actions  at  law,  previous  to  April  21,  1837.  Following  the 
rather  offhand  ways  of  the  day,  he  tried  some  cases  at  the 
bar,  as  we  have  seen,  before  all  the  requirements  for  his  ad- 
mission had  been  complied  with.  The  present  writer  ven- 
tures the  opinion  that,  according  to  statute,  three  steps 
must  have  been  taken  before  a  person  was,  at  this  period, 
legally  qualified  to  practice  as  an  attorney  or  counselor  at 
law,  within  the  State.  First,  he  had  to  obtain  a  certificate 
"  of  his  good  moral  character,"  from  a  County  Court;  sec- 
ond, he  had  to  secure  a  license  signed  by  two  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  and  third,  having  taken  the  oath  of  office, 
he  had  to  have  his  name  entered  on  the  roll  kept  by  the  clerk 
of  that  court.  It  was  not,  therefore,  until  Lincoln  had  been 
formally  enrolled  that  his  career  as  a  lawyer  may  correctly 
be  said  to  have  begun.  (See  Revised  Laws  of  Illinois  for 


NOTES  335 

1833,  pp.  99-100;  and  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
December  Term,  1840,  in  the  matter  of  E.  C.  Fellows,  an 
attorney  who  had  failed  to  have  his  name  enrolled  — 
Illinois  Reports,  iii,  369.) 


CHAPTER  II 

1.  Nicolay,  53.     See,  also,  Browne,  150-51;  Coffin,  94. 

2.  This  narrative  of  the  interview  has  been  collated  from  the 
several  accounts  of  it  given  by  Mr.  Speed  at  various  times. 
See  Oldroyd,  145-46;  Whitney,  16-17;  Browne,  152-53; 
Clarke,  341-42;  Herndon,  i,  175-76.    See,  also,  Arnold, 
53-54;  Brooks,  80;  Coffin,  95;  Hapgood,  61-62. 

3.  There  are  a  number  of  variations  in  the  different  accounts 
of  this  episode,  but  the  essential  facts  appear  to  be  as  here 
related.  Comprehensive  versions  are  given  by  Arnold,  39- 
40;  Stowe,  19-20;  Holland,  55-56;  Browne,  1 19-20;  Onstot, 
89-90;  Brockett,  710;  Jayne,  10;  Noah  Brooks,  in  Harper's 
Magazine,  July,  1865,  p.  226. 

4.  According  to  Major  Stuart,  Lincoln  was  his  partner  from 
April  27,  1837,  to  April  14, 1841 ;  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan's, 
from  April  14,  1841,  to  about  September  20,  1843;  and 
William  H.  Herndon's,  from  about  September  20,  1843, 
until  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  There  appears  to  be  some 
ground  for  the  belief  that  the  last  partnership  was  formed 
some  months  later  than  is  here  stated. 

5.  The  oft-repeated  statement  that  Lincoln  disdained  to  keep 
accounts  has,  in  his  case  as  in  that  of  another  eminent  law- 
yer, Patrick  Henry,  been  confuted  by  the  evidence  of  the 
fee-books  themselves. 

6.  Onstot,  58. 

7.  The  parallel  between  Lincoln  and  his  running  mate  in  the 
successful  canvass  of  1860  might  be  drawn  at  this  point 
also.    Referring  to  Hamlin's  early  days  in  the  practice  of 
law,  his  biographer  says: "  He  handled  a  good  deal  of  money 
belonging  to  his  clients,  and  it  often  happened  that  they 
did  not  call  for  it  until  some  time  after  it  had  been  collected. 
Mr.  Hamlin,  therefore,  had  at  times  considerable  sums  of 
money  in  his  possession,  and  on  one  occasion  he  told  a 
friend  what  disposition  he  made  of  such  money  and  his  rea- 
sons. He  said,  'When  I  collect  money  for  a  client,  I  inclose 


336 


NOTES 


it  in  an  addressed  package,  and  lock  the  package  up  in  my 
trunk  until  it  is  called  for.  I  will  not  touch  or  use  that 
money  for  my  purposes  under  any  circumstances,  unless, 
of  course,  the  owner  should  authorize  it.  The  money  be- 
longs to  the  owner.  I  have  no  more  right  to  use  it,  even  if 
I  could  replace  it  in  five  minutes,  than  I  would  have  to  take 
money  that  he  might  happen  to  have  in  his  pocket-book.' " 
(Hamlin,  45.) 

8.  This  principle  was  recognized  as  early  as  Cicero's  time.   In 
his  Ninth  Philippic,  eulogizing  Servius  Sulpicius,  that  most 
profound  of  Roman  advocates,  the  orator  said,  according 
to  Forsyth's  version : "  He  did  not  consider  himself  a  lawyer 
rather  than  a  servant  of  justice,  and  his  constant  endeavor 
was  to  temper  the  severity  of  law,  by  reference  to  principles 
of  equity.    He  had  less  pleasure  in  advising  that  actions 
should  be  brought,  than  in  removing  all  cause  for  litigation." 

9.  Works,  ii,  142.    Lincoln's  comment  —  "the  nominal  win- 
ner is  often  a  real  loser"  —  suggests  the  similarity  between 
his  advice  and  that  of  Professor  Porson,  as  expressed  in  that 
learned  humorist's  mock  examination  questions  for  stu- 
dents:— 

"What  happens  if  you  win  your  cause?" 
"You  are  nearly  ruined." 
"What  happens  if  you  lose  your  cause?" 
"You  are  quite  ruined." 

10.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  i,  338;  Browne,  220. 

11.  For  a  few  of  these  stories  the  reader  is  referred  to  Onstot, 
20;  Stringer,  i,  218;  McClure's  Yarns,  380;  Gallaher,  46- 
47;  Lincolnics,  30-31;  MacChesney,   299-300;   Depew's 
Speech,  February  12,  1909,  pp.  6-7;  Dr.  George  M.  Angell, 
in  Bloomington  (111.)  Pantagraph,  February  12,  1909. 

Lincoln  was  not  the  only  great  lawyer  concerning  whom 
such  anecdotes  might  be  told.  The  eminent  New  England 
advocate,  Jeremiah  Mason,  is  said  to  have  been  equally 
successful  in  bringing  about  compromises.  "Mr.  Mason," 
writes  one  who  knew  him  well,  "  magnified  his  position  by 
exerting  all  his  influence  to  prevent  litigation,  or  the  com- 
mencement of  suits  upon  mere  quibbles,  or  for  the  purpose 
of  procrastination,  or  to  gratify  personal  vindictiveness,  or 
retaliation.  He  was  eminently  a  peacemaker,  and  was  in- 
strumental in  healing  many  a  wound,  and  in  preventing  the 


NOTES  337 

useless  expenditure  of  money,  by  a  set  of  litigants,  who  were 
in  the  habit  of  annoying  (employing?)  lawyers  to  aid  them 
in  schemes  of  malice  or  revenge."  (John  P.  Lord,  quoted  in 
Hillard's  Memoir  and  Correspondence  of  Jeremiah  Mason,  46.) 

12.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  i,  339. 

13.  Herndon,  ii,  14. 

14.  Browne,  218-19.  Lincoln's  expedient  for  preventing  trivial 
litigation  was  similar  in  its  essence  to  that  of  the  New  York 
attorney  concerning  whom  Edwards,  in  his  Pleasantries 
about  Courts  and  Lawyers,  tells  this  anecdote:  — 

"  In  a  certain  part  of  our  State,  two  Dutchmen,  who 
built  and  used  in  common,  a  small  bridge  over  a  little 
stream  which  ran  through  their  farms,  had  a  dispute  con- 
cerning certain  repairs  which  it  required.  One  of  them  de- 
clined to  bear  any  portion  of  the  expense  necessary  to  the 
purchase  of  two  or  three  planks.  The  aggrieved  party  went 
to  a  neighboring  attorney  and  placing  ten  dollars,  in  two 
notes  of  five  dollars  each,  in  his  hand,  said  — 

"  '  I  '11  give  you  all  dish  monies  if  you  '11  make  Hans  do 
justice  mit  de  pridge.' 

" '  How  much  will  it  cost  to  repair  this  bridge? '  asked  the 
attorney. 

" '  Well,  den,  not  more  ash  five  tollars.' 

"  '  Very  well,'  said  the  legal  gentleman,  pocketing  one  of 
the  notes  and  giving  the  Dutchman  the  other,  '  take  this 
and  go  and  get  the  bridge  repaired.  It 's  the  best  course 
you  can  take.' 

" '  Yaas,'  responded  the  client  slowly,  '  y-a-a-s,  dat  ish 
more  better  as  to  quarrel  mit  Hans.' 

"  But  as  he  went  home,  he  shook  his  head  frequently,  as 
if  unable,  after  all,  quite  clearly  to  see  how  he  had  gained 
anything  by  going  to  the  lawyer." 

15.  This  narrative  is  based  on  two  interviews,  secured  for  the 
author  from  Henry  Rice,  in  the  autumn  of  1907  and  in  the 
spring  of  1908,  respectively.   See,  also,  Markens,  24. 

16.  Lincoln's  refusal  to  take  what  he  considered  a  bad  case  is 
in  harmony,  as  far  as  civil  actions  go,  with  the  practice  of 
every  high-minded  lawyer.    David  Hoffman,  of  the  Balti- 
more bar,  drawing  up,  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  a 
code  of  ethics  for  the  guidance  of  his  students  throughout 
their  professional  careers,  prescribed  as  the  eleventh  of 


338 


NOTES 


fifty  resolutions:  "  If,  after  duly  examining  a  case,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  my  client's  claim  or  defense  (as  the  case  may 
be)  cannot,  or  rather  ought  not  to  be  sustained,  I  will 
promptly  advise  him  to  abandon  it.  To  press  it  further  in 
such  a  case,  with  the  hope  of  gleaning  some  advantage  by 
an  extorted  compromise,  would  be  lending  myself  to  a  dis- 
honorable use  of  legal  means  in  order  to  gain  a  portion  of 
that,  the  whole  of  which  I  have  reason  to  believe  would  be 
denied  to  him  both  by  law  and  justice." 

17.  Holland,  126;  Browne,  162.   But  see  Lamon,  317,  for  Mc- 
Henry's  account  of  a  somewhat  similar  interview  that  had 
a  different  termination. 

1 8.  "  Never  stir  up  litigation.   A  worse  man  can  scarcely  be 
found  than  one  who  does  this."  (Notes  for  Law  Lecture,  in 
Works,  ii,  142.) 

19.  Tarbell,  i,  248;  McClure's  Yarns,  359-60. 

20.  Lamon,  325. 

21.  It  should,  perhaps,  be  noted  that  in  refusing  Matteson's 
case  Lincoln  turned  his  back  on  one  of  his  own  influential 
clients,  whom  he  had  represented  in  the  Supreme  Court  but 
a  short  time  before  this  happened.  See  the  appeal  of  Con- 
stant vs.  Matteson  et  al.,  argued  at  the  January  term  of 
1859,  in  the  Second  Grand  Division.    (Illinois  Reports, 
xxii,  546-62.) 

22.  James  Judson  Lord  to  William  H.  Herndon,  in  Herndon, 
ii,  14-15,  note;  Letter  of  Mrs.  Katherine  Lord  Driscoll  to 
the  author. 

23.  General  John  H.  Littlefield,  in  Success,  February,  1901,  p. 
600;  Lincolnics,  31.    An  interview,  somewhat  like  these 
two,  culled  from  the  practice  of  the  eminent  Southern  law- 
yer and  statesman,  Robert  Toombs,  is  thus  related  by  his 
biographer:  "  On  one  occasion  he  said  to  a  client  who  had 
stated  his  case  to  him,  '  Yes,  you  can  recover  in  this  suit, 
but  you  ought  not  to  do  so.   This  is  a  case  in  which  law  and 
justice  are  on  opposite  sides.'  The  client  told  him  he  would 
push  the  case,  anyhow.  '  Then,'  replied  Mr.  Toombs,  '  you 
must  hire  some  one  else  to  assist  you  in  your  damned  rascal- 
ity.'" (Stovall,  18-19.)  Another  distinguished  Southerner, 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  held  equally  conscientious  opin- 
ions as  to  what  constitutes  a  lawyer's  duty.  These  views, 
based  on  a  long  and  honorable  career,  occupy  a  notable 
place  in  his  Recollections.   (See  Stephens,  383-89.) 


NOTES  339 

24.  Rev.  John  Putnam  Gulliver,  in  the  New  York  Independent, 
September  i,  1864.   The  article  is  reprinted  in  Carpenter, 
309-17. 

25.  Atkinson,  28-29;  Lamon,  40,  note. 

26.  For  details  concerning  these  and  other  similar  incidents  the 
reader  is  referred  to:  Curtis's  Lincoln,  77;  Browne,  646-47; 
Brooks,  426;  Carpenter,  78,  114-15;  Hill,  131,  i98;Tarbell, 
i,  254;  Bateman,  30-32;  Flower,  63;  Emerson,  5-9;  Works, 
ii,  70,  368;  ibid.,  iii,  32;  ibid.,  ix,  26,  84-85;  Debates,  13,  26; 
Scribner's  Magazine,  February,  1878,  p.  565.    See,  also, 
Speed,  1 8. 

27.  From  the  response  by  Justice  David  Davis,  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  to  resolutions  presented  upon  the 
death  of  Lincoln,  at  a  session  of  the  Federal  Circuit  Court 
held  in  Indianapolis,  May  19,  1865. 

28.  Ex-Chief  Justice  Caton's  address  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Illinois,  May  3,  1865,  in  Caton,  12;  Illinois  Reports, 
xxx  vii,  13. 

29.  Barrett,  818;  Browne,  235-36;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  303-04. 

30.  Swett  to  Herndon,  in  Herndon,  ii,  246-47. 

31.  Whitney,  261. 

32.  Lamon,  324. 

33.  This  account  of  the  incident  is  based  chiefly  on  statements 
made  by  District  Attorney  Ward  Hill  Lamon,  himself 
(Lamon,  322),  and  by  Judge  David  Davis,  who  probably 
referred  to  the  affair  in  a  story  which  he  recalled,  with  un- 
important variations,  many  years  later,  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  Ratcliffe  Hicks,  a  contributor  to  the  Century  Mag- 
azine of  February,  1894,  p.  638.    Henry  C.  Whitney,  it 
should  be  added,  writing  after  Lamon  but  before  Hicks, 
contradicted  the  former's  narrative  in  almost  every  impor- 
tant particular.  A  careful  reading,  however,  of  Whitney's 
book  (at  pages  130-32  and  534),  leads  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  error  lies  with  him  rather  than  with  Lamon  and  Davis; 
for  he  obviously  confused  the  Patterson  trial,  in  his  mem- 
ory, with  another  Champaign  County  case. 

34.  Letter  from  Abraham  Lincoln  to  H.  Keeling,  dated  March 
3,  1858,  and  quoted  from  manuscript  in  Herndon,  i,  326. 

35.  Shaw's  letter  of  June  13,  1866,  quoted  from  manuscript  in 
Herndon,  i,  323. 

36.  Holland,  130;  Stowe,  22. 


340  NOTES 

37.  Joseph  Gillespie's  manuscript  letter  of  October  8,  1886, 
quoted  in  Herndon,  ii,  13-14;  Lamon,  321-22.    Gillespie 
was,  to  a  precise  degree,  Lincoln's  contemporary  at  the  bar. 
Their  enrollment  dates  from  the  same  year  —  1837. 

38.  The  same  figure  of  speech  was  used,  to  describe  a  similar 
attitude  of  mind,  by  that  other  eminent  lawyer,  Horace 
Binney,  leader  for  many  years  of  the  Philadelphia  bar.   In 
his  private  record,  written  for  the  eyes  of  his  children,  we 
find : "  I  never  prosecuted  a  cause  that  I  thought  a  dishonest 
one,  and  I  have  washed  my  hands  of  more  than  one  that  I 
discovered  to  be  such  after  I  had  undertaken  it."    (Binney, 

443-) 

39.  For  the  details  of  this  anecdote  the  author  collated  the 
accounts  in  Browne,  228;  Lamon,  324;  and  Stringer,  i,  217. 
According  to  the  last-mentioned  authority,  however,  Lin- 
coln was  found,  not  at  the  tavern,  but  in  the  Postville  Park, 
playing  townball  with  the  boys. 

40;  Whitney,  130-32,  262;  see,  also,  136.  It  was  probably  con- 
cerning this  incident  that  the  same  colleague  wrote  in  an- 
other work:  "On  one  occasion,  Swett  and  I  sat  on  a  bench 
in  the  extreme  rear  of  the  court-room  while  Lincoln  closed 
to  the  jury  on  our  side,  and  we  were  utterly  astonished  at 
the  cruel  mode  in  which  he  applied  the  knife  to  all  the  fine- 
spun theories  we  had  crammed  the  jury  with."  (Whitney's 
Life,  i,  175.) 

41.  The  authenticity  of  this  story  has  been  questioned.  It  cer- 
tainly calls  for  confirmation,  as  the  first  case  in  which  Lin- 
coln appeared  before  the  State  Supreme  Court,  according 
to  the  printed  records  (Illinois  Reports,  iii,  456-57),  was 
that  of  Scammon  vs.  Cline.  Here  he  was  associated  with 
another  attorney,  James  L.  Loop,  of  Belvidere,  and  repre- 
sented, not  the  appellant,  but  the  defendant  in  error.  The 
discrepancies  are  striking  rather  than  vital.  From  the  pecu- 
liar nature  of  that  case  Lincoln  may  well,  at  the  time,  have 
made  the  brief  oral  statement  attributed  to  him ;  and,  as  we 
know,  the  decision  which  followed  was,  in  fact,  against  his 
client.  On  the  other  hand,  perhaps  the  scene  did  not  take 
place  during  the  argument  on  Scammon  vs.  Cline.  If  Judge 
Treat's  narrative  is  correct  in  every  particular,  Lincoln 
must  have  made  his  first  bow  before  the  Supreme  Court 
sometime  during  the  three  and  a  half  years  of  practice  that 


NOTES  341 

preceded  this  hearing.  And  he  might  have  done  so,  too, 
without  that  fact  appearing  in  the  records.  For  the  re- 
porter, finding  the  early  material  incomplete,  and  seeking 
to  limit  the  size  of  the  published  volumes,  did  not  include 
all  the  cases.  It  may  be  added  that  an  account  of  this  inci- 
dent has,  in  some  form,  been  accepted  by  Herndon,  i,  322- 
23 ;  Lamon,  321 ;  Schurz,  16;  Leland,  6 1 ;  and  Stoddard,  1 19. 
All  these  men  knew  Lincoln  —  some  of  them  throughout 
almost  his  entire  legal  career.  That  they  believed  him  cap- 
able of  the  course  described  in  the  anecdote  is,  perhaps,  as 
significant  as  the  story  itself. 

An  essay,  giving  the  results  of  careful  researches  into  the 
case  of  Scammon  vs.  Cline,  by  Richard  V.  Carpenter,  was 
printed  in  the  Journal  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society 
for  October,  1911,  pp.  317-23. 

42.  "Judge  Davis  often  delegated  his  judicial  functions  to 
others.  I  have  known  of  his  getting  Moon  of  Clinton  to 
hold  court  for  him  in'Bloomington  for  whole  days;  Lincoln 
to  hold  an  entire  term,  and  frequently  to  sit  for  short  times; 
and  I  even  knew  of  Colonel  Bryant  of  Indiana  to  hold 
court  for  him  in  Danville.  All  judgments  rendered  by 
these  lawyers  were  voidable.  Time  has  probably  now  cured 
them.  It  was  a  hazardous  business  for  them  and  the  sheriff 
and  suitors  in  their  cases."  (Whitney's  Life,  i,  192.) 

One  of  these  irregular  judges,  it  may  be  said  in  passing, 
more  than  returned  the  compliment,  some  years  later,  by 
elevating  Davis  to  the  bench  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court;  and  the  legality  of  that  appointment  has  not  been 
questioned. 

CHAPTER  III 

1.  It  would  not  be  correct,  however,  to  say,  as  is  sometimes 
said,  that  Lincoln  won  every  case  which  he  should  have 
won.   Contemporary  lawyers  testify  to  the  contrary. 

2.  Herndon,  ii,  3;  Whitney,  251. 

3.  Hill,  225-26. 

4.  Whitney,  259;  Whitney's  Life,  i,  177. 

5.  Anthony  Thornton,  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  February  12, 
1900,  p.  14. 

6.  Illinois  Reports,  xxxvii,  15. 


342  NOTES 

7.  Whitney,  262-63 ;  Whitney's  Life,  \,  196. 

These  tributes  to  Lincoln's  honorable  methods  again 
recall  the  principles  that  contributed  not  a  little  toward 
Horace  Binney's  preeminence.  In  the  review  of  his  career 
he  wrote:  "  I  at  all  times  disdained  to  practise  any  strata- 
gem, trick  or  artifice  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  an  advan- 
tage over  my  adversary;  and  unless  I  thought  him  unfair,  I 
was  generally  willing  that  he  should  see  all  my  cards  while 
I  played  them.  I  can  truly  say  that  I  am  not  conscious  of 
having  lost  anything  by  this  candor;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
have  repeatedly  gained  by  it.  If  my  client  was  at  any  time 
suspected,  I  had  no  reason  to  think  that  I  was,  by  either 
the  Court  or  the  bar;  and  how  many  balancing  cases,  in  the 
course  of  thirty-five  years'  practice,  this  sort  of  reputation 
assisted,  I  need  not  say."  (Binney,  443.) 

8.  Herndon,  i,  326-28;  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1867,  p.  412. 

Whatever  the  practice  at  the  Springfield  bar  may  have 
been,  Lincoln's  objection  to  the  making  of  a  fictitious  plea 
was  of  course  not  finical.  No  less  an  authority  than  Chief 
Justice  Holt  had  said:  "The  attorney,  if  he  puts  in  a  false 
plea  to  delay  justice,  breaks  his  oath,  and  may  be  fined  for 
putting  a  deceit  on  the  Court."  (Pierce  vs.  Blake,  Salkeld's 
Reports,  ii,  515.  See,  also,  Johnson  vs.  Alston,  Campbell's 
Reports,  i,  176.) 

9.  Whitney,  263-64;  Herndon,  ii,  17-18.   It  should  be  noted 
that  April  24,  1856,  fell  on  a  Thursday,  not  a  Saturday. 
Whether  the  4  is  a  misprint  for  6,  or  whether  this  term  of 
court  extended  to  Saturday,  May  24,  or  whether  the  error 
lies  elsewhere,  cannot  now  be  determined. 

10.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  i,  360-62. 

11.  Lincoln  to  Trumbull,  December  18,  1857,  in  the  Century 

Magazine,  February,  1909,  p.  620. 

12.  Justice  David  Davis  from  the  bench  of  the  Federal  Circuit 
Court,  at  Indianapolis,  May  19,  1865. 

13.  Holland,  130;  Lamon's  Recollections,  19-20;  Stowe,  22; 
Browne,  162. 

14.  Koerner,  ii,  no. 

15.  Recollections  of  Colonel  Richard  J.  Hinton,  in  the  Chicago 
Times-Herald,  November  17,  1895. 

16.  Holland,  80.    See,  also,  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  307;  Ward, 
205,  270;  Browne,  238. 


NOTES  343 

17.  Mrs.  Norman  B.  Judd,  in  Oldroyd,  523;  also,  in  Tarbell,  i, 
277-78.  A  report  of  Lincoln's  argument,  rather  full,  though 
far  from  complete,  has  been  reprinted  from  the  Chicago 
Daily  Press,  in  Works,  ii,  340-54,  and  Tarbell,  ii,  324-30. 

1 8.  Admissions  that  seemed  to  be  of  a  more  damaging  nature 
than  those  which  were  made  in  this  case  have  at  times  been 
known  to  assist,  rather  than  interfere  with,  the  winning  of 
a  verdict.   How  far  counsel  may  go,  along  such  lines,  was 
illustrated  in  the  practice  of  Daniel  Webster.  A  more  bril- 
liant, though  less  scrupulous,  advocate  than  Lincoln,  he 
went  the  limit. 

Once  in  Boston,  defending  a  man  who  had  been  indicted 
for  forgery,  his  first  act  —  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
trial,  before  a  witness  had  been  called  —  was  to  arise  and 
say:  "May  it  please  the  Court,  we  admit  the  forgery,  so 
that  evidence  on  this  point  will  be  unnecessary.  We  deny 
that  the  note  was  uttered  in  this  county." 

The  astonishment  of  those  present  gave  way  to  compre- 
hension, when  it  became  evident  that  the  prosecution  could 
easily  have  made  out  a  case  of  forgery  against  the  prisoner; 
but  that  it  could  not  so  readily  have  proven,  what  was  of 
equal  importance,  the  issuing  of  the  forged  instrument  in 
Suffolk  County.  For  want  of  sufficient  proof,  on  this  very 
point,  the  defendant  was  acquitted.  He  might  have  fared 
differently  if  both  the  questions  of  forgery  and  utterance 
had  been  presented  to  the  jury.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  had 
they  listened  to  evidence  on  the  crime  itself,  those  facts 
would  have  so  overshadowed  other  considerations  in  their 
minds  as  to  bring  about  a  conviction.  Webster's  avowal 
prevented  this,  and  saved  his  unworthy  client. 

19.  Herndon,  ii,  3;  Whitney,  251. 

20.  Lincoln  to  Linder,  February  20,  1848,  Works,  ii,  3. 

21.  Herndon,  ii,  7. 

22.  Arnold,  84.    See,  also,  Whitney's  Life,  i,  173;  Oldroyd,  37; 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  307. 

23.  Herndon,  ii,  7. 

24.  Gibson  W.  Harris,  quoted  in  Browne,  220. 

25.  Letter  of  Justice  David  J.  Brewer  to  the  author ;  and  an  arti- 
cle by  him  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1906,  p.  591. 

26.  Caton,  13;  Illinois  Reports,  xxxvii,  13. 

27.  A  statement  made  by  Judge  David  Davis. 


344  NOTES 

28.  Hill,  211-12. 

29.  Letter  of  Hon.  Shelby  M.  Cullom  to  the  author;  Bateman, 
13-15.  See,  also,  Hill,  236-37;  and  T.  W.  S.  Kidd,  the  crier 
of  the  court,  in  Tarbell,  i,  273-75. 

30.  Judge  Lawrence  Weldon,  quoted  in  Hill,  212-15. 

31.  A  letter  said  to  have  been  written  by  Lincoln  to  Mrs. 
Armstrong,  offering  her  his  services,  is  published  in  Selby 
(254),  and  Hobson  (41-42) ;  yet  neither  of  these  writers,  re- 
sponding to  inquiries  by  the  author,  has  been  able  to  throw 
any  light  on  the  question  of  its  authenticity.    According  to 
other  biographers,  a  communication  of  such  a  nature  was 
received  by  Mrs.  Armstrong,  who  stated,  as  they  allege,  that 
it  had  been  lost.   On  the  other  hand,  "  Duff  "  himself,  in  his 
detailed  narrative,  makes  no  reference  to  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Lincoln;  and  John,  his  younger  brother,  in  an  equally  full 
account  of  the  affair,  taken  down  for  the  author  by  Thomas 
D.  Masters  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  expresses  the  opinion 
that  no  written  message  on  the  subject  was  ever  received. 
The  Masters  notes  concerning  this  topic  read:  — 

"Mr.  Armstrong  has  no  recollection  of  hearing  of  any 
letter  being  written  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  his  mother,  at  the 
time  his  brother  got  into  the  trouble  in  question;  and  he  re- 
quests me  to  say  to  you  that  he  is  quite  sure  that  had  such 
a  letter  been  written  he  would  have  known  of  it.  He  points 
out  to  me  that  his  mother  was  unable  to  read,  and  in  that 
early  day,  had  she  received  a  letter  from  a  man  such  as  Lin- 
coln then  was,  —  a  much-talked-about  lawyer  in  Spring- 
field, —  that  by  reason  of  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion, 
and  the  interest  such  a  letter  would  have  excited  in  the 
household,  he  certainly  would  have  known  of  it.  His 
recollection  is  that  his  mother,  probably  after  the  cause 
was  venued  to  Cass  County,  made  a  trip  to  Springfield,  of 
course,  knowing  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  feeling  friendly  to  him, 
and  having  confidence  in  him,  for  the  purpose  of  employing 
him  to  assist  in  the  defense  of  her  son  at  Beardstown." 
32.  A  singular  parallel  presents  itself  in  ancient  Athenian  his- 
tory, where  Alcibiades  and  his  friends  were  charged,  as 
Plutarch  relates,  with  mutilating  the  images  of  Mercury, 
on  a  certain  night.  When  one  of  the  informers  was  asked 
how  he  managed  to  recognize  the  features  of  the  accused  in 
the  darkness,  he  answered,  —  "I  saw  them  by  the  light  of 
the  moon,"  —  a  palpable  misstatement,  as  the  affair  hap- 


NOTES  345 

pened  at  the  time  of  a  new  moon  which  gave  practically  no 
light.  This  anecdote,  however,  could  hardly  have  prompted 
Lincoln  to  consult  an  almanac  in  the  Armstrong  case, 
because  he  had  not  read  Plutarch's  Lives  at  the  time  of  that 
trial,  and  only  did  so  two  years  later. 

33.  Judge  Abram  Bergen,  quoted  by  James  L.  King,  in  the 
North   American   Review,    February,    1898,    pp.    193-94. 
Bergen' s  testimony  should  be  supplemented  by  a  state- 
ment which  "Duff"  Armstrong  himself  made,  in  his  re- 
spectable old  age,  to  J.  McCan  Davis.   It  was  published  in 
the  New  York  Sun  of  June  7,  1896.  According  to  this  re- 
port Armstrong  then  declared:  "The  almanac  used  by  Lin- 
coln was  one  which  my  cousin,  Jake  Jones,  furnished  him. 
On  the  morning  of  the  trial  I  was  taken  outside  the  court- 
room to  talk  to  Lincoln.  Jake  Jones  was  with  us.   Lincoln 
said  he  wanted  an  almanac  for  1857.   Jake  went  right  off 
and  got  one,  and  brought  it  to  'Uncle  Abe.'    It  was  an 
almanac  for  the  proper  year,  and  there  was  no  fraud  about 
it." 

34.  Ram,  269-70,  note,  505.    It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a 
somewhat  similar  tale  is  frequently  met  with  among  the 
anecdotes  of  the  English  bar.    A  barrister  at  the  "Old 
Bailey,"  according  to  this  version,  secured  the  acquittal  of 
a  client  charged  with  highway  robbery  by  introducing  an 
almanac  to  prove  that  there  was  darkness  on  a  certain  night, 
instead  of  the  bright  moonlight,  in  which  the  prosecuting 
witness  claimed  to  have  distinguished  the  prisoner's  fea- 
tures.   The  almanac,  however,  as  afterwards  transpired, 
had  been  fraudulently  so  printed  for  that  occasion. 

35.  Those  who  wish  to  collate  what  has  been  published  about 
the  Armstrong  affair  may  find  these  references  of  service: 
Gridley's  Defense,   3-23;  Hill,  229-34;  Hobson,  40-50; 
Tarbell,  i,  270-73;  Lamon,  327-31 ;  Arnold,  87-89;  Onstot, 
98-100;  Irelan,  xvi,  142-44;  Oldroyd,  213-15;  Herndon, 
ii,  26-28;  Barrett,  63-66;  Barrett  (New),  i,  152-54;  Hol- 
land, 128-29;  Browne,  224-27;  Brockett,  82-85;  Selby,  94~ 
97,  254;  Phillips's  Men  Who  Knew,  62-63;  Stoddard,  157- 
60;   Raymond,   29-31;   Brooks,    127-29;   French,   75-76; 
Whipple,  261-65;  Bartlett,  111-15;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  75; 
Coffin,  162-63;  Stowe,  23-25;  Morgan,  102-03;  Nicolay's 
Boy's  Life,  94-97;  Hanaford,  44-48;  Pratt,  78-82 ;  Thayer, 
285-93;  McClure's  Stories,  97-99;  Williams,  68-73;  Lin- 


346  NOTES 

colnics,  64-66;  Jones,  15;  Master,  20-22;  New  York  Sun, 
June  7,  1896;  North  American  Review,  February,  1898,  pp. 
191-95;  Kankakee  (111.)  Republican,  February  12,  1909, 
Bloomington  (111.)  Pantagraph,  January  20,  1912;  also 
Eggleston's  The  Graysons,  in  which  the  trial  and  the  al- 
manac incident  are  used  by  the  novelist  with  good  effect. 

36.  Tarbell,  i,  265;  Emerson,  5. 

37.  From  an  unpublished  manuscript  entitled  "Lincoln  on 
the  Stump  and  at  the  Bar,"  by  Judge  Scott,  quoted  in 
Tarbell,  i,  253-54. 

38.  Judge  William  M.  Dickson,  in  Harper's  Magazine,  June, 
1884,  p.  63;  Barrett  (New),  i,  121-22.   See,  also,  Alban  J. 
Conant,  in  Liber  Scriptorum,  175-76,  and  in  McClure's 
Magazine,  March,  1909,  p.  516;  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  in 
Rice,  432 ;  Browne,  229-30;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  85 ;  McClure's 
Yarns,  457 ;  McClure's  Stories,  92 ;  Pratt,  59-60. 

39.  Collated  from  accounts  by  George  W.  Minier,  in  Oldroyd, 
187-89,  and  in  Herndon,  ii,  327-28;  also:  Arnold,  85-87; 
Brooks,  122-24;  Coffin,  108;  Pratt,  68-69. 

40.  Binney,  444. 

41 .  Lincoln  would  doubtless  have  approved  of  David  Hoffman's 
rule  on  this  subject.    It  read:  "  I  will  never  plead  or  other- 
wise avail  of  the  bar  of  infancy  against  an  honest  demand. 
If  my  client  possesses  the  ability  to  pay,  and  has  no  other 
legal  or  moral  defense  than  that  it  was  contracted  by  him 
when  under  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  he  must  seek  for 
other  counsel  to  sustain  him  in  such  a  defense.   And  al- 
though in  this,  as  well  as  in  that  of  limitation,  the  law  has 
given  the  defense,  and  contemplates  in  the  one  case  to  in- 
duce claimants  to  a  timely  prosecution  of  their  rights,  and 
in  the  other  designs  to  protect  a  class  of  persons  who  by 
reason  of  tender  age  are  peculiarly  liable  to  be  imposed  on, 
yet  in  both  cases  I  shall  claim  to  be  the  sole  judge  (the  pleas 
not  being  compulsory)  of  the  occasions  proper  for  their  use. ' ' 

42.  Remarks  of  Justice  David  Davis  in  the  Federal  Circuit 
Court  at  Indianapolis,  May  19,  1865. 

43.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  these  same  revolution- 
ary properties,  and  the  same  stage-setting  of  frozen  ground 
flecked  with  the  blood  of  patriots'  unshod  feet,  had  served 
Patrick  Henry,  many  years  before,  in  the  defense  of  John 
Venable,  Commissary  of  the  Continental  Army,  sued  by 
John  Hook,  a  Tory,  for  the  value  of  some  steers  seized  to 


NOTES  347 

feed  the  hungry  troops.  But  Henry's  eloquence  had  not  pre- 
vailed as  fully  as  Lincoln's  did ;  for  the  jury  found  a  verdict, 
though  in  a  nominal  sum,  against  the  great  Virginian's  client. 

44.  Herndon,  ii,  9-11;  see,  also,  Holland,  127.   For  brief  ac- 
counts and  comments  based  on  Herndon's  and  on  Hol- 
land's narratives  the  reader  is  referred  to:  Hapgood,  108; 
Browne,  162-63;  Hill,  215-16;  Coffin,  104-05;  Tarbell,  i, 
250;  Pratt,  74-76;  Selby,  97-98;  McClure's  Stories,  101. 

45.  Herndon,  i,  328-30. 

A  brief  and  less  picturesque  account  of  the  incident  was 
furnished  to  the  author,  about  half  a  century  after  the 
event,  by  the  Honorable  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  one  of  the 
counsel  for  the  defense.  He  wrote:  "During  the  trial,  a 
question  was  raised  as  to  the  admissibility  of  certain  testi- 
mony, which  was  very  important  to  the  defense.  The 
Judge  took  an  hour  to  come  to  a  conclusion  as  to  what  he 
ought  to  do;  and  when  he  began  to  decide  the  question,  he 
seemed  to  be  leaning  against  the  admissibility  of  the  testi- 
mony. Lincoln  saw  that  he  was  inclined  that  way,  and 
sprang  upon  his  feet,  and  manifested  such  intense  earnest- 
ness that  it  appeared  to  change  the  Judge's  disposition,  and 
he  decided  in  favor  of  the  admissibility  of  the  testimony." 

Still,  Herndon  probably  did  not  overstate  the  case.  For 
the  official  crier,  Captain  Thomas  W.  S.  Kidd,  referring  to 
that  same  episode,  said:  "Mr.  Lincoln  made  a  display  of 
anger,  the  like  of  which  I  never  saw  exhibited  by  him  before 
or  after.  He  roared  in  the  excess  of  his  denunciation  of 
the  action  of  the  Court."  (Rochester  Herald,  January  17, 
1904.  See  Kidd,  also,  in  Tarbell,  i,  251-52.) 

CHAPTER  IV 

I.  Though  under  very  different  circumstances,  Lincoln's  ela- 
tion seems  not  unlike  that  of  another  famous  man  whose 
later  life  touched  his  at  several  points.  The  first  dollar 
earned  by  Frederick  Douglass,  on  free  soil,  in  New  Bed- 
ford, was  paid  to  him,  as  he  tells  us,  for  stowing  away  a  pile 
of  coal  for  Mrs.  Ephraim  Peabody,  the  wife  of  a  Unitarian 
minister.  "  I  was  not  long  in  accomplishing  the  job,"  runs 
his  story,  "when  the  dear  lady  put  into  my  hand  two  silver 
half-dollars.  To  understand  the  emotion  which  swelled  my 
heart  as  I  clasped  this  money,  realizing  that  I  had  no  mas- 


348  NOTES 

ter  who  could  take  it  from  me,  —  that  it  was  mine,  —  that 
my  hands  were  my  own,  and  could  earn  more  of  the  pre- 
cious coin,  —  one  must  have  been  in  some  sense  himself  a 
slave."  (Douglass,  210.) 

2.  Lamon,  pointing  out  some  inconsistencies  in  the  details  of 
this  anecdote  as  it  is  generally  quoted,  expresses  doubts 
concerning  its  authenticity.    He  evidently  did  not  know 
how  often  Lincoln  had  told  the  story  to  different  persons. 
Their  versions,  as  might  be  expected,  vary  somewhat,  but 
they  agree  in  the  essential  facts.    See:  Carpenter,  96-98; 
William  D.  Kelley,  in  Rice,  279-80;  Leonard  Swett,  in 
Rice,  457-58;  Holland,  33-34;  Brooks,  38;  Pratt,  16-18; 
Morgan,   27-28;  Lamon,  72;  McClure's  Stories,   17-18; 
Hanaford,   156-58;    Boyden,   83-84;  Irelan,  xvi,  62-64; 
Tarbell,  i,  38-39;  Browne,  72-73;  Banks,  14-16;  Ward, 
277-78;  Thayer,  169-71;  Ludlow,  66-68;  Curtis's  Lincoln, 
24-25;  Whipple,   62-63;  Selby,   52-53;   Raymond,   754; 
Onstot,  51-52;  Egbert  L.  Viele,  in  Scribner's  Magazine, 
October,  1878,  p.  817 ;  Alban  J.  Conant,  in  McClure's  Maga- 
zine, March,  1909,  p.  514;  interview  with  Governor  Frank 
Fuller,  in  the  New  York  Times,  October  i,  1911,  p.  10. 

3.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  i,  259-61,  356;  ii,  90-91. 

4.  Holland,  93. 

5.  See  Lincoln  to  Speed,  June  19,  1841,  in  Works,  i,  168-75, 
and  in  Lamon,  318-19;  also,  Gibson  W.  Harris,  in  Colum- 
bia (Ky.)  Spectator,  January  27,  1905. 

6.  Oldroyd,  394~95- 

7.  Onstot,  41-44. 

8.  Lincoln  to  Whitney,  December  18,  1857,  in  Works,  xi,  103. 

9.  Brockett,    702-03;    McClure's    Yarns,    341-42;    Barrett 
(New),  i,  154-55;  interview  with  Mrs.  Rose  Linder  Wilkin- 
son, in  Chicago  Times-Herald,  September  n,  1895. 

10.  The  nature  of  these  kindnesses  may  be  inferred  from  the 
following  despatch :  — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  December  26,  1863. 
HON.  U.  F.  LINDER, 

Chicago,  111.: 

Your  son  Dan  has  just  left  me,  with  my  order  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  to  administer  to  him  the  oath  of  allegiance, 

discharge  him,  and  send  him  to  you. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

(Works,  ix,  275;  see,  also,  ibid.,  272. 


NOTES  349 

11.  Boston  Advertiser,  February  12,  1909,  p.  7. 

12.  Stowe,   21 ;  Carpenter,   245;    Browne,   229;    French,   80; 
McClure's  Stories,  89-91 ;  Thayer,  284-85 ;  Gallaher,  39-40. 

13.  Gibson  W.  Harris,  in  Browne,  220. 

14.  Koerner,  ii,  112. 

15.  Caroline  H.  Dall,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1867,  p.  413. 

16.  Tarbell,  i,  267-68;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  74-75;  Thomas  Lewis, 
in  Leslie's  Weekly,  February  16,  1899. 

17.  Browne,  224. 

1 8.  G.  W.  Nance,  in  Oldroyd,  557. 

19.  Charles  W.  Moores,  in  American  Law  Review,  January- 
February,  1911,  p.  92. 

20.  Henry  Rickel,  in  Cedar  Rapids  Gazette,  February  6,  1909, 
p.  i. 

21.  Ward,  242-46;  Jennings,  93-98. 

22.  Father  Chiniquy  reproduces  in  his  book  an  engraved  fac- 
simile of  the  due-bill,  dated  May  23,  1856.    It  is  undeni- 
ably in  Lincoln's  handwriting,  but  no  explanation  has  been 
offered  to  reconcile  the  date  with  the  priest's  statement 
that  the  paper  was  written  in  October,  at  the  time  of  the 
second  trial.   The  author  based  his  narrative  of  this  affair 
upon  Chiniquy,  566,  620-67 ;  Whitney,  53~55»  136-37;  and 
a  brief  of  the  Circuit  Court  records  at  Urbana,  Illinois, 
made  for  the  writer  by  Judge  Joseph  O.  Cunningham. 

23.  George  P.  Floyd,  in  McClure's  Magazine,  January,  1908, 

P-  303- 

24.  Lamon's  Recollections,  17-19;  see,  also,  Browne's  Lincoln 
and  Men,  i,  348-51.    There  are  a  few  other  examples,  in 
legal  history,  of  high-minded  lawyers  rejecting  what  they 
regarded  as  excessive  fees.  One  notable  English  instance  is 
thus  related  by  Lord  Brougham  concerning  Topping:  — 

"A  general  retainer  of  a  thousand  guineas  was  brought 
to  him  to  cover  the  Baltic  cases  then  in  progress.  His  an- 
swer was,  that  this  indicated  either  a  doubt  of  his  doing  his 
duty  on  the  ordinary  terms  known  in  the  profession  (one 
guinea  particular,  and  five  guineas  general  retainer)  —  or 
an  expectation  that  he  should,  on  being  thus  retained,  do 
something  beyond  the  line  of  his  duty;  and  therefore  he 
must  decline  it.  His  clerk  then  accepted  of  the  usual  sum 
of  five  guineas,  and  he  led  on  those  important  cases,  for  the 
defendants." 


350  NOTES 

So  also  Charles  O'Conor,  leader  for  many  years  of  the 
New  York  bar,  subordinated  money-making  to  a  sense  of 
professional  propriety.  His  friend,  William  H.  Winters, 
Librarian  of  the  Law  Institute,  relates  that  a  client  once 
urged  the  famous  pleader,  with  some  insistence,  to  accept 
a  very  much  larger  fee  than  the  lawyer  had  charged. 
O'Conor,  becoming  indignant,  manifested  in  his  own  forci- 
ble way  how  this  annoyed  him.  He  denied  the  right  of  any 
one  to  dictate  what  his  pay  for  legal  services  should  be,  and 
dismissed  the  presumptuous  client  without  ceremony. 

25.  There  is  a  companion  tale  current  among  English  lawyers 
concerning  another  member  of  the  bar,  at  an  earlier  period, 
who  was  accused  by  his  fellow  barristers  of  having  de- 
graded their  order  by  accepting  payment  for  services  in 
copper.    Upon  being  arraigned  for  this  offense  at  their 
Common  Hall  he  defended  himself,  —  so  the  tradition 
runs,  —  with  the  following  plea  in  confession  and  avoid- 
ance: "  I  fully  admit  that  I  took  a  fee  from  him  in  copper, 
and  not  one  but  several,  and  not  only  fees  in  copper  but  fees 
in  silver.    But  I  pledge  my  honor,  as  a  Sergeant,  that  I 
never  took  a  single  fee  from  him  in  silver  until  I  had  got  all 
his  gold,  and  that  I  never  took  a  fee  from  him  in  copper 
until  I  had  got  all  his  silver,  —  and  you  don't  call  that  a 
degradation  of  our  order." 

26.  Whitney,  81. 

27.  Works,  xi,  98-99. 

28.  E.  S.  Nadal,  in  Scribner's  Magazine,  March,  1906,  p.  368. 

29.  Herndon,  i,  324-25. 

30.  That  baffling  question  as  to  how  the  value  of  a  lawyer's 
services  should  be  arrived  at  was  thus  stated  in  Lincoln's 
trial  brief:  "Are  or  not  the  amount  of  labor,  the  doubtful- 
ness and  difficulty  of  the  question,  the  degree  of  success  in 
the  result,  and  the  amount  of  pecuniary  interest  involved, 
not  merely  in  the  particular  case,  but  covered  by  the  prin- 
ciple decided,  and  thereby  secured  to  the  client,  all  proper 
elements,  by  the  custom  of  the  profession  to  consider  in 
determining  what  is  a  reasonable  fee  in  a  given  case?  " 

For  an  answer  that  may  serve,  in  part,  at  least,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  an  opinion,  which  had  been  delivered 
some  years  previously  by  Chief  Justice  John  B.  Gibson, 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Supreme  Court.  Discussing  the  fees 


NOTES  351 

earned  by  an  attorney  in  important  litigation,  he  said:  "  It 
is  not  to  be  doubted  that  responsibility,  in  a  confidential 
employment,  is  a  legitimate  subject  of  compensation,  and 
in  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  committed 
to  the  agents.  ...  A  lawyer  charged  with  particular  prep- 
arations for  a  lawsuit,  is  not  to  be  made  responsible,  or  paid, 
as  a  porter  or  a  shoemaker."  (Pennsylvania  Reports,  vii, 
545-46.) 

31.  Lincoln's  attitude  in  this  particular  affords  another  strik- 
ing contrast  to  that  of  David  Hoffman,  who  lays  down  the 
rule:  "  I  will  charge  for  my  services  what  my  judgment  and 
conscience  inform  me  is  my  due,  and  nothing  more.  If  that 
be  withheld,  it  will  be  no  fit  matter  for  arbitration;  for  no 
one  but  myself  can  adequately  judge  of  such  services,  and 
after  they  are  successfully  rendered  they  are  apt  to  be 
ungratefully  forgotten.   I  will  then  receive  what  the  client 
offers,  or  the  laws  of  the  country  may  award,  but  in  either 
case  he  must  never  hope  to  be  again  my  client." 

32.  The  most  fruitful  references  on  this  topic  are:  Herndon,  ii, 
21-22;  Whitney's  Life,  i,  184-85;  Hill,  250-54,  261,  316- 
19;  Tarbell,  i,  258-60;  Works,  ii,  288-89;  Lincoln  as  Attor- 
ney, passim;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  72;   Illinois  Reports,  xvii, 
291-99;  Koerner,  ii,  111-12. 

33.  Jesse  W.  Weik,  in  Century  Magazine,  June,  1904,  pp.  282, 
286;  Herndon,  i,  251. 

34.  Lincoln  to  Speed,  July  4,  1842,  in  Lamon,  251;  Works,  i, 
219. 

35.  Browne,  180-82;  Coffin,  123;  Gallaher,  31;  Hapgood,  85; 
Jesse  W.  Weik,  in  Century  Magazine,  June,  1904,  p.  280. 

36.  Four  children,  in  all,  were  born  to  Abraham  and  Mary 
Todd  Lincoln.  They  were:  Robert  Todd,  August  i,  1843; 
Edward  Baker,  March  10,  1846;  William  Wallace,  Decem- 
ber 21,  1850;  and  Thomas,  April  4,  1853. 

37.  Some  years  after  the  purchase  of  this  cottage,  its  modest 
dimensions  were  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  another  story 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  increased  family. 

38.  Leonard  W.  Volk,  quoted  in  the  Outlook,  February  13, 

1909,  P-  348. 

39.  Lincoln's  straightway  habit  of  waiting  on  himself  had 
striking  illustration  while  he  was  in  Congress.   Calling  for 
some  law  books  at  the  library  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as  the 


352  NOTES 

librarian  relates,  he  tied  them  in  a  huge  bandana  handker- 
chief which  he  took  from  his  pocket,  passed  a  stick,  brought 
for  the  purpose,  through  the  knotted  ends,  slung  the  bun- 
dle across  his  shoulder  and  carried  it  thus  to  his  lodgings, 
whence  the  volumes  were  returned  later  in  the  same  primi- 
tive fashion.  When  a  still  greater  public  honor  than  that  of 
Congressman  came  to  him,  one  of  his  neighbors  in  Spring- 
field exclaimed:  "What!  Abe  Lincoln  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States!  Can  it  be  possible?  A  man  that 
buys  a  ten-cent  beefsteak  for  his  breakfast,  and  carries  it 
home  himself." 

40.  Herndon,  ii,  16. 

41.  Joseph  Gillespie,  in  Oldroyd,  462.  Still  another  one  of  the 
famous  cavalcade,  Leonard  Swett,  said :  "Beds  were  always 
too  short,  coffee  in  the  morning  burned  or  otherwise  bad, 
food  often  indifferent,  roads  simply  trails,  streams  without 
bridges  and  often  swollen,  and  had  to  be  swum,  sloughs 
often  muddy  and  almost  impassable,  and  we  had  to  help 
the  horses,  when  the  wagon  mired  down,  with  fence-rails  for 
pries,  and  yet  I  never  heard  Lincoln  complain  of  anything." 

In  the  same  vein,  Henry  C.  Whitney  wrote:  "At  the 
table,  he  ate  what  came  first,  without  discrimination  or 
choice.  Whatever  room  at  the  hotel  came  handy,  or  what- 
ever bed  he  came  to  first,  he  took  without  criticism  or  in- 
spection." 

42.  Quoted  from  manuscript  of  Ninian  W.  Edwards  by  Hern- 
don, i,  1 86;  also:  Lamon,  190;  French,  60;  Coffin,  99; 
Browne,  138-39;  Master,  55-56. 

43.  Whitney,  32;  see,  also,  Herndon,  ii,  15-16. 

44.  Schurz,  ii,  90-91. 

45.  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall,  whom  Lincoln  resembled  in 
not  a  few  particulars,  is  said  to  have  made  a  similarly  un- 
favorable impression  upon  a  prospective  client,  during  his 
younger  days  at  the  Richmond  bar.  But  in  the  Virginian's 
case,  the  critical  suitor  discovered,  even  before  the  trial 
began,  that  a  poorly  dressed  lawyer  is  not  necessarily  a 
poor  advocate.  So  Marshall  was  retained,  at  the  eleventh 
hour,  to  assist  an  immaculately  attired  colleague,  whose 
ability  was  found  to  fall  far  short  of  the  promise  held  forth 
by  broadcloth  and  powdered  wig. 

46.  Master,  224-25,  469. 


NOTES  353 

47.  Works,  iv,  199. 

48.  Jayne,  1 1 ;  and  Dr.  William  Jayne  to  the  author,  October 
2,  1912. 

49.  Gibson  W.  Harris,  quoted  in  Columbia  (Ky.)  Spectator, 
January  27,  1905.    The  same  witness,  writing  elsewhere 
(Browne,  219)  on  the  same  theme,  says:  "Mr.. Lincoln  had 
a  heart  that  was  more  a  woman's  than  a  man's,  —  filled  to 
overflowing  with  sympathy  for  those  in  trouble,  and  ever 
ready  to  relieve  them  by  any  means  in  his  power." 

50.  Mrs.  Lincoln  to  Mrs.  Keckley,  November  15,  1867,  in 
Keckley,  352. 

51.  John  F.  Mendonsa  to  the  author,  August  31,  1912. 

52.  Haynie,  7-8. 

53.  Fellowship,  1908,  pp.  12-13;  see,  also,  Works,  ii,  313-14. 

54.  Lincoln  to  Johnston,  January  12,  1851,  Works,  ii,  148. 

55.  Works,  ii,  96. 

56.  This  deed  may  be  found  in  Coles  County  Deed  Records,  G, 
p.  5.  Of  the  same  date,  October  25, 1841,  entered  in  Mort- 
gage Record,  i,  p.  43,  is  an  instrument  whereby  Abraham 
Lincoln  binds  himself  and  his  heirs  to  convey  the  property 
to  John  D.  Johnston  or  his  heirs,  after  the  death  of  the 
parents,  upon  repayment  of  the  two  hundred  dollars,  with- 
out interest  and  without  regard  to  any  increase  in  the  value 
of  the  tract. 

57.  For  further  light  on  these  matters  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  letters  from  Lincoln  to  Johnston  in  Works,  ii,  135, 
144-46,  147-53;  an<3  to  the  deed  published  in  Gridley, 
145-46. 

58.  Lincoln's  ownership  of  this  land,  in  the  town  named  for 
him,  is  further  evidence  of  his  ready  amiability  toward 
friends,  where  monetary  matters  were  concerned.    The 
lot,  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  court-house  square, 
had  belonged  to  James  Primm,  a  well-known  court  official 
and  public  man  of  Logan  County.    Finding  himself  in 
financial  difficulties,  he  had  borrowed  four  hundred  dol- 
lars on  his  promise  to  pay,  which  Lincoln  obligingly  en- 
dorsed.   But  when   the   time  for  payment  arrived,  the 
maker  of  the  note  was  unable  to  meet  it,  so  the  endorser 
had  found  himself  obliged  to  pay.    Lincoln  did  so,  and 
some  time  later  Primm,  by  way  of  reimbursement,  had 
given  him  a  deed  of  the  lot.   (See  Stringer,  i,  221-22.) 


354  NOTES 

59.  E.  J.  Edwards,  in  New  York  Times,  January  24,  1909.  For 
other  accounts  see:  Raymond,  100;  Browne,  314-15;  Cur- 
tis's  Lincoln,  45;  Ward,  281;  Thayer,  313-14;  Lincolnics, 
93-94.  As  having  a  further  bearing  on  the  question  of 
Lincoln's  estate  in  1860,  these  references  may  be  service- 
able: Works,  vi,  31;  Arnold,  83, 154-55;  Whitney,  26;  Hern- 
don,  i,  91-92;  Oldroyd,  32;  Lamon,  472;  Lamon's  Recollec- 
tions, 20;  Holland,  127;  Hobson,  100-04;  Browne,  200-01; 
Rice,  587;  Curtis's  Lincoln,  74;  McClure's  Magazine, 
March,  1909,  pp.  514-15;  New  York  Times,  October  I, 
1911,  p.  10. 

CHAPTER  V 

1.  Lamon,  126;  Works,  xi,  97;  see,  also,  the  Autobiography, 
in  Works,  vi,  31. 

2.  Works,  vi,  31. 

3.  Address  to  the  People  of  Sangamon  County,  March  9, 
1832,  in  Works,  i,  8. 

4.  These  scenes,  until  then  happily  without  parallel  in  Ameri- 
can history,  recall  the  political  slaughter  with  which  Charles 
James  Fox  had  seventy  years  before  signalized  a  crushing 
victory  in  the  British  House  of  Commons.   To  quote  his 
biographer:  "  The  fight  was  over,  and  the  butchery  began. 
Every  one  who  belonged  to  the  beaten  party  was  sacrificed 
without  mercy,  with  all  his  kindred  and  dependents ;  and 
those  public  officers  who  were  unlucky  enough  to  have  no 
political  connections  fared  as  ill  as  the  civil  population  of  a 
district  which  is  the  seat  of  war  between  two  contending 
armies.    Clerks,  messengers,  excisemen,  coast-guardsmen, 
and  pensioners  were  ruined  by  shoals  because  they  had  no 
vote  for  a  member  of  Parliament,  or  because  they  had  sup- 
ported a  member  who  had  opposed  the  peace."   (Trevel- 
yan's  Fox,  28.) 

5.  Greeley,  20. 

6.  During  Lincoln's  first  year  in  the  Illinois  Legislature  he 
voted  steadily  with  the  minority  against  the  adoption  of 
resolutions  which  the  Democratic  majority  had  intro- 
duced to  uphold  President  Jackson  in  his  memorable  strug- 
gle against  the  United  States  Bank.   But  when  it  came  to 
voting  on  one  resolution  which  condemned  the  National 


NOTES  355 

Senate  for  discourteous  treatment  of  the  old  hero,  and  on 
another  which  commended  the  Illinois  delegation  in  Con- 
gress for  supporting  the  Administration,  Lincoln  turned 
away  from  his  political  associates,  and  had  himself  recorded, 
both  times,  in  Jackson's  favor.  (See  Illinois  House  Jour- 
nal, 1835,  pp.  213-17,  258-63.) 

7.  Works,  vi,  31-32. 

8.  The  whole  number  of  citizens  who  voted  at  New  Salem, 
on  August  6,  1832,  amounted  to  300;  but  as  10  of  these 
refrained  from  expressing  their  preferences  for  Represen- 
tatives, only  13  actually  appear  on  the  records  as  voting 
against  Lincoln.    No  election-tickets  or  ballot-boxes  were 
used  in  Illinois  at  this  time.   The  wva-voce  method  was 
employed;  and  as  each  voter  stated  his  choice,  he  saw  it 
recorded  opposite  his  name  in  the  poll-book. 

9.  It  is  interesting  to  add  that  in  this  election  of  1 832,  the  coun- 
try at  large  gave  Jackson  219  electoral  votes,  and  Clay  49. 

10.  Letter  from  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan,  quoted  in  Nicolay 
and  Hay,  i,  102-03,  note;  and  Master,  47. 

11.  The  practice  of  carrying  documents  in  his  hat  became  a 
habit  with  Lincoln.  While  at  the  bar  in  Springfield,  long 
after  the  postmastership  had  become  a  memory,  he  ex- 
plained his  failure  to  answer  a  communication  promptly, 
by  writing:  "When  I  received  your  letter  I  put  it  in  my 
old  hat,  and  buying  a  new  one  the  next  day,  the  old  one 
was  set  aside,  and  so  the  letter  was  lost  sight  of  for  a  time." 
(See  Tarbell,  i,  98;  and  Tarbell's  Early  Life,  179.) 

12.  Lincoln  was  appointed  Postmaster  at  New  Salem  on  May 
7,  1833.   He  served  until  May  30,  1836,  by  which  time 
the  population  of  the  place  had  fallen  off  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  office  was  discontinued,  and  its  business  transferred 
to  Petersburg. 

13.  Herndon,  i,  ill.    See,  also:  Onstot,  249;  Tarbell's  Early 
Life,  181 ;  Tarbell,  i,  99;  Coffin,  81.   Some  currency  having 
been  given  to  an  exaggerated  and  obviously  erroneous 
report  of  the  incident,  Mr.  Carpenter  (110-12)  repeated 
that  version  one  day  in  the  White  House  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
The  President  thought  they   had  "  stretched  the  facts 
somewhat";  but  his  denial,  such  as  it  was,  leaves  the  orig- 
inal story  told  by  Simmons  to  Herndon,  practically  un- 
impeached. 


356  NOTES 

14.  For  a  comprehensive  note  in  which  the  local  election  re- 
turns of  1834  are  collated,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Mas- 
ter, §  22,  pp.  445-46. 

15.  In  a  referendum  of  the  question  submitted  to  the  people 
at  the  election  of  1834,  7514  voters  expressed  a  preference 
for  Alton,  7148  for  Vandalia,  7044  for  Springfield,  744  for 
Illiopolis  the  geographical  center,  486  for  Peoria,  and  272 
for  Jacksonville.   When  the  final  balloting  took  place  in 
the  General  Assembly,   twenty-nine  places  were  voted 
upon.   (See  Parrish's  Illinois,  313.) 

16.  Whitney,  i,  139;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  139. 

17.  Details  of  these  encounters  are  related  in  Master,  60- 
62. 

18.  Lamon,  195;  Herndon,  i,  166. 

19.  General  T.  H.  Henderson,  in  Tarbell,  i,  139. 

20.  Whitney's  Life,  i,  146. 

21.  Statement  of  Coleman  Smoot,  in  Lamon,  157.  As  Lincoln 
was  thus  supplied  with  sufficient  means  to  defray  his 
traveling  expenses,  the  oft-repeated  story,  which  depicts 
him  as  trudging,  pack  on  back,  over  the  road  to  Vandalia, 
may  perhaps,  with  propriety,  be  assigned  to  a  place  among 
those  pleasing  traditions  of  history  that  are  found,  upon 
close  scrutiny,  to  be  more  picturesque  than  plausible. 

22.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  158;  Pratt,  52-53;  Coffin,  125-27; 
Nicolay's  Boy's  Life,  59.    Lincoln's  experience,  it  should 
be  noted,  in  canvassing  his  district  with  a  nominal  outlay 
of  money,  was  not  uncommon.   Gustav  Koerner,  running 
for  the  Illinois  Legislature  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  a 
few  years  later,  did  so  under  similar  circumstances.  "  There 
were  hardly,"  he  tells  us,  "any  election  expenses.  We  al- 
ways stayed  with  friends  when  traveling  through  the 
county.   We  had  our  horses  anyway.  My  entire  election- 
eering expenses  amounted  to  four  dollars,  and  that  for  the 
printing  of  tickets.  One  Democratic  Frenchman  from  the 
Bottom  afterwards  sent  me  a  bill  of  $6.65  for  which  he 
said  he  had  gratuitously  treated  for  me.  As  he  was  a  good 
fellow,  I  paid   him,  although  I  had  not  given  him  the 
slightest  authority  to  do  so."   (Koerner,  i,  468-69.) 

23.  See  letter  of  Lincoln  to  Stuart,  February  14,  1839,  in 
Works,  xi,  98. 

24.  Works,  i,  6-7. 


NOTES  357 

25.  This  is  exclusive  of  what  was  appropriated  for  the  Illinois 
and  Michigan  Canal,  then  already  in  process  of  construc- 
tion.   That  enterprise,  the  other  improvement  projects, 
and  a  few  smaller  public  outlays  carried  the  State  debt, 
by  the  close  of  1842,  above  $15,000,000. 

26.  Works,  i,  146. 

27.  An  Act  to  establish  and  maintain  a  General  System  of 
Internal  Improvements.    Approved  February  27,   1837. 
Section  22,  Illinois  Session  Laws,  1836-37. 

28.  Works,  i,  154-55;  Lamon,  213-15. 

29.  Gillespie,  24-25;   Lamon,  216-17;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i, 
161-62;  Davidson,  422-27;  Herndon,  i,  217;  Morse,  i,  60; 
Hapgood,  72-73.   It  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  Lin- 
coln and  his  two  colleagues  were  not  the  only  acrobatic 
legislators  revealed  by  our  early  local  histories.    General 
Lew  Wallace,  in  his  Autobiography  (i,  251),  tells,  with  con- 
trition, how  he  bolted  from  the  Indiana  Senate  to  prevent 
an  election  of  United  States  Senator;  and  Thaddeus  Ste- 
vens, during  his  turbulent  days  in  the  Pennsylvania  House 
of  Representatives,  jumped  from  a  window  after  a  scene 
of  violence,  in  which,  by  a  singular  coincidence,  he  too 
had  acted  as  the  Whig  leader. 

30.  Lamon,  324;  Browne,  237. 

31.  Works,  i,  27. 

32.  Works,  i,  I35-37- 

33.  Joshua  F.  Speed  in  Herndon,  i,  161-63;  Speed,  17-18; 
Speed,  in  Oldroyd,  143-45;  Master,  50-52,  446. 

34.  Holland,  97-98. 

35.  Eulogy  on  Henry  Clay,  in  Works,  ii,  165. 

36.  In  the  ballot  for  Speaker  of  the  Illinois  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives on  December  3,  1838,  William  Lee  D.  Ewing 
received  43  votes,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  38  votes.    In  a 
similar  contest  on  November  24,  1840,  Ewing  received 
46  votes,  and  Lincoln  36  votes. 

37.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  185. 

38.  White,  19-20. 

39.  Joseph  D.  Roper,  in  Springfield  (111.)  Journal,  January 
30,  1909. 

40.  Gibson  W.  Harris,  in  Woman's  Home  Companion,  Decem- 
ber, 1903,  p.  15. 

41.  Herndon,  ii,  45. 


358 


NOTES 


42.  Works,  i,  142-45. 

43.  During  Lincoln's  last  term  in  the  Illinois  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives he  offered  the  following  resolution :  — 

"RESOLVED,  that  so  much  of  the  Governor's  message 
as  relates  to  fraudulent  voting,  and  other  fraudulent 
practices  at  elections,  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Elections,  with  instructions  to  said  committee  to  prepare 
and  report  to  the  House  a  bill  for  such  an  act  as  may,  in 
their  judgment,  afford  the  greatest  possible  protection  of 
the  elective  franchise  against  all  frauds  of  all  sorts  what- 
soever." 

This  failed  of  adoption,  and  in  its  stead  was  passed  a 
substitute  offered  by  John  A.  McClernand,  one  of  the 
Democratic  leaders.  (See  Illinois  House  Journals,  1840- 
41,  p.  34;  and  Works,  i,  152-53-) 

44.  Horace  White,  in  Herndon,  i,  xxii. 

45.  Lincoln  to  Herndon,  June  22,  1848,  Works,  ii,  50.    See, 
also:  Herndon,  i,  270-72;  Lamon,  295. 

46.  Phillips's  Men  Who  Knew,  160-62. 

47.  Whitney,  117. 

48.  Schurz,  ii,  91. 

49.  The  sequel  to  this  little  adventure,  as  Mr.  Nelson  tells  it, 
should  not  be  omitted.   "  I  had  many  opportunities  after 
the  stage  ride,"  he  relates,  "to  cultivate  Mr.  Lincoln's 
acquaintance,  and  was  a  zealous  advocate  of  his  nomina- 
tion and  election  to  the  Presidency.    Before  leaving  his 
home  for  Washington,  Mr.  Lincoln  caused  John  P.  Usher 
and  myself  to  be  invited  to  accompany  him.   We  agreed 
to  join  him  in  Indianapolis.    On  reaching  that  city  the 
Presidential  party  had  already  arrived,  and  upon  inquiry 
we  were  informed  that  the  President-elect  was  in  the  din- 
ing-room of  the  hotel,  at  supper.  Passing  through,  we  saw 
that  every  seat  at  the  numerous  tables  was  occupied,  but 
failed  to  find  Mr.  Lincoln.   As  we  were  nearing  the  door 
to  the  office  of  the  hotel,  a  long  arm  reached  to  my  shoulder 
and  a  shrill  voice  exclaimed, '  Hello,  Nelson !  Do  you-  think, 
after  all,  the  world  is  going  to  follow  the  darned  thing  off? ' 
It  was  Mr.  Lincoln."  (Herndon,  i,  303-06.  See,  also:  Coffin, 
132;  Selby,  89-90;  Williams,  136-37;  McClure's  Yarns, 
410.) 

50.  Herndon,  i,  253. 


NOTES  359 

51.  The  affair  with  James  Shields.  See  Master,  65-77. 

52.  Lincoln  to  Martin  M.  Morris,  March  26,  1843,  Works,  i, 
262. 

53.  A.  Y.  Ellis,  in  Lamon,  143;  and  in  Herndon,  i,  255. 

54.  For  an  amusing  account  of  how  Lincoln  exposed  one  of 
these  demagogues  to  public  ridicule,  on  the  stump,  see  Mas- 
ter, 54-56. 

55.  Works,  v,  238-39. 

56.  "  He  took  his  friend  James  Matheney  out  into  the  woods 
with  him  one  day  and,  calling  up  the  bitter  features  of 
the  canvass,  protested  '  vehemently  and  with  great  em- 
phasis '  that  he  was  anything  but  aristocratic  and  proud. 
'  Why,  Jim,'  he  said,  '  I  am  now  and  always  shall  be  the 
same  Abe  Lincoln  I  was  when  you  first  saw  me.'  "   (Hern- 
don, i,  256;  Lamon,  273.) 

57.  Lincoln's  second  son,  born  a  few  years  later,  on  March 
10,  1846,  was  named  for  Baker. 

58.  Lincoln  to  Speed,  March  24,  1843,  Works,  i,  261. 

59.  Lincoln  to  Morris,  March  26,  1843,  Works,  i,  262-65.  See, 
also,  the  letter  to  Morris  of  April  14,  1843,  Works,  i,  265- 
66. 

60.  General  J.  M.  Ruggles,  quoted  in  Tarbell,  i,  195-96;  Cur- 
tis's  Lincoln,  138. 

61.  Lincoln  to  Speed,  May  18,  1843,  Works,  i,  268.  This  let- 
ter was  written  after  the  convention.  To  accord  with  that 
fact,  the  obvious  printer's  error  in  punctuation  has  been 
corrected. 

62.  Lincoln  to  Hardin,  May  II,  1843,  Works,  i,  266-67. 

63.  Lincoln's  Autobiography,  in  Works,  vi,  36-37;  Scripps, 
1 8,  the  authorized  campaign  biography  of  which  Lincoln 
critically  read  the  advance  sheets.    See,  also:   Nicolay, 
73-74,  90;  Newton,  19;  Dr.  Robert  Boal,  in  Peoria  (111.) 
Herald,  February  14,  1899;  Gibson  W.  Harris,  in  Woman's 
Home   Companion,  December,  1903,  p.  15.    But  to  the 
contrary  see:  Lamon,  275-77;  Herndon,  i,  257;  Nicolay 
and  Hay,  i,  242-43;  Morse,  i,  72. 

64.  Baker  resigned  from  Congress  to  engage  in  the  Mexican 
War,  a  few  months  before  the  end  of  his  term.  The  short 
period  that  remained  was  of  no  interest  to  the  leading 
Whigs,  so  a  local  politician  named  John  Henry  secured  the 
office  for  the  unexpired  time. 


360  NOTES 

65.  Lincoln  to  Hardin,  January  19,  1845,  Works,  i,  271-74. 
This  letter  is  also  printed  in  the  Lapsley  Edition  of  the 
Works,  ii,  5-8,  as  of  1845.   But  the  date  evidently  should 
be  1846.    See  also  Lincoln  to  B.  F.  James,  January  16, 
1846,  Works,  i,  285-86. 

66.  Woman's   Home    Companion,    December,    1903,    p.    15; 
Browne,  222. 

67.  Lamon,  277-78;  Nicolay  and  Hay,  i,  248-49. 

68.  Browne's  Lincoln  and  Men,  i,  300. 

69.  Lincoln  to  Speed,  October  22,  1846,  in  Works,  i,  298 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Alcibiades,  concerned  in  incident 
parallel  to  Armstrong  case,  344. 

Armstrong,  Hannah,  befriended 
Lincoln  in  his  childhood,  109;  her 
alleged  letter  from  Lincoln,  344. 

Armstrong,  Jack,  one  of  "Clary's 
Grove  boys,"  109. 

Armstrong,  William  ("  Duff  "),  his 
murder  case,  108;  344. 

Atlantic  Railroad  Co.,  represented 
by  Lincoln  in  suit,  144-145. 

Baddeley,  John  W.,  refuses  to  re- 
tain Lincoln,  181. 

Baker,  Edward  D.,  associated 
with  Lincoln  in  Trailor  case, 
137;  Lincoln's  opponent  for 
congressional  nomination,  267; 
resigns  from  congress,  359;  Lin- 
coln's son  named  for,  359. 

Balch,  George  B.,  describes 
Thomas  Lincoln,  2,  323. 

Beale,  Edward  F.,  acquires  large 
tracts  of  land,  330. 

Beards  town,  111.,  109. 

Beasley,  J.  D.,  90. 

Bergen,  Judge  Abram,  on  the 
Armstrong  case,  112-114;  on 
authenticity  of  almanac,  345. 

Berry,  Rev.  John  M.,  father  of 
William  F.  Berry,  23. 

Berry,  William  F.,  buys  share  in 
Herndon  store,  21;  partner  of 
Lincoln,  22 ;  idleness,  intemper- 
ance, and  death  of,  23. 

Binney,  Horace,  attitude  toward 
Statute  of  Limitations,  123;  at- 
titude when  suspects  client's 
guilt  during  trial,  340;  compared 
to  Lincoln,  342. 


Black  Hawk  War,  Lincoln  in,  21 ; 
Lincoln's  wrestling  match  in, 
29-31. 

Blackstone's  Commentaries,  read 
by  Lincoln,  37. 

Blackwell,  Henry  B.,  anecdote 
about  Lincoln,  143-144. 

Blackwell,  Robert  S.,  endorses 
Lincoln's  charge  against  Illi- 
nois Central  R.R.,  168. 

Bloomington,  HI.,  82. 

Booker,  William  F.,  on  character 
of  Mordecai  and  Josiah  Lincoln, 

323- 
Boyle,  Benjamin,  shot   by  Gen. 

Linder's  son,  141. 
Breese,  Judge  Sidney,  on  Lin- 
coln's honesty,  86. 
Brewer,  Justice  David  J.,  anecdote 

on  Lincoln  and  law,  103;  343. 
Brockman,  James   M.,   receives 

letter  from  Lincoln  on  how  to 

study  law,  333. 
Brokaw,  Abraham,  anecdote  of 

Lincoln  and  money,  148. 
Brougham,  Henry  Peter,  Baron, 

on  legal  fees,  349. 
Browning,  Orville   H.,   endorses 

Lincoln's  charge  against  Illinois 

Central  R.R.,  168. 
Bunn,  John  W.,  anecdote  on  Lin- 
coln's moderate   charges,   150; 

on  Lincoln  and  politics,  258. 
Bush,  Sally,  see  Mrs.  Johnston. 
Butler,  William,  tenders  Lincoln 

hospitality,  42. 

Calhoun,  John,  surveyor  of  Sanga- 
mon  County,  appoints  Lincoln 
Deputy  Surveyor,  25,  28,  204. 


364 


INDEX 


Carter,  Robert  Nicholas,  turns 
over  practice  to  Patrick  Henry, 

71- 

Cartwright,  Dr.  Peter,  Method- 
ist circuit-rider,  105;  Lincoln's 
opponent  for  Congress,  278, 
279. 

Caton,  Judge  John  D.,  on  Lin- 
coln's honesty,  64;  on  Lincoln 
and  law,  103-104. 

Chaddon,  L.  D.,  90. 

Chew,  Henry,  recipient  of  gener- 
osity from  Lincoln,  184;  fails  to 
pay  bill  guaranteed  by  Lincoln, 
185- 

Chiniquy,  Father  Charles,  sued 
for  slander,  155;  retains  Lin- 
coln, 156;  overwhelmed  by 
Lincoln's  generosity,  158. 

Chiniquy  Slander  Case,  155-158. 

"  Clary's  Grove  Boys,"  wreck 
Radford's  store,  22. 

Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius,  eulogy  of 
Servius  Sulpicius,  336. 

Clay,  Henry,  Lincoln's  admira- 
tion for,  200;  political  pro- 
gramme, 201. 

Clinton,  deWitt,  Lincoln's  emu- 
lation of,  218. 

Cogdal,  Isaac,  generously  treated 
by  Lincoln,  137. 

Conant,  Alban  J.,  on  Lincoln's 
study  of  Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries, 331. 

Constable,  Charles  H.,  disloyalty 
to  his  party,  244-245. 

Counterfeit  money,  in  common 
circulation,  15;  Lincoln's  experi- 
ence with,  15-16;  Lincoln  se- 
cures acquittal  of  man  charged 
with  passing  it,  16. 

Crafton,  Greek,  killed  by  Quinn 
Harrison,  105. 

Crawford,  josiah,  makes  Lincoln 
work  for  damaged  book,  1 1 ; 
lampooned  by  Lincoln,  12. 


Cullom,  Shelby  M.,  associated 
with  Lincoln  in  Harrison  case, 
1 06;  on  Lincoln's  methods  of 
meeting  personal  attacks,  344; 
on  Lincoln  as  an  advocate,  337. 

Davis,  David,  on  Lincoln's  hon- 
esty, 63-64;  appoints  Lincoln 
to  sit  as  judge  for  him,  89,  90; 
on  Lincoln  and  the  law,  123- 
124;  rebukes  Lincoln  for  un- 
dercharging, 161;  presides  at 
mock-trial,  162;  his  "Midas 
touch,"  172;  delegates  his  judi- 
cial functions  to  others,  341. 

Davis,  J.  McCan,  on  authentic- 
ity of  almanac  in  Armstrong 
case,  345. 

Dawson,  John,  one  of  the  "Long 
Nine,"  211. 

Democratic  Party,  under  Andrew 
Jackson,  198;  in  power  when 
Lincoln  enters  politics,  199; 
lashed  by  Lincoln,  241-242. 

Deskins,  Dr.  John,  sheriff  sent  in 
pursuit  of  Lincoln,  70. 

Dick,  James  A.,  sheriff  in  "  Duff  " 
Armstrong  case,  1 10. 

Dickson,  Judge  William  M.,  de- 
scribes Lincoln's  humor  as  ad- 
vocate, 346. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  his  similari- 
ties to  Lincoln,  240. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  dunned  by 
Lincoln,  148-149;  elected  Reg- 
ister of  Land  Office,  223. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  tells  of  first 
money  he  earned,  347. 

Dowling,  Mrs.  John,  daughter  of 
Dennis  Hanks,  praises  Thomas 
Lincoln,  2,  3. 

Dresser,  Rev.  Charles,  officiates 
at  Lincoln's  wedding,  174. 

Driscoll,  Mrs.  Katherine  Lord, 
anecdote  on  Lincoln's  refusal 
of  bad  cases,  338. 


INDEX 


365 


Drummond,  Judge  Thomas,  on 
Lincoln's  honesty,  64. 

Duncan,  Gov.  Joseph,  calls  spe- 
cial session  of  assembly,  231. 

Dungee,  Jack,  sues  Spencer  for 
slander,  152-155. 

Dungee  Slander  Suit,  Lincoln's 
fee,  154. 

Duperron,  Cardinal,  and  Henry 
HI,  59- 

Edwards,  Benjamin  S.,  retained 
by  Gov.  Matteson,  55. 

Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  opposing 
advocate  to  Lincoln,  159;  one  of 
the  "Long  Nine,"  211;  on  Lin- 
coln's appearance,  179,  352. 

Elizabethtown,  Ky.,  home  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  4;  home  of 
Mrs.  Johnston,  7. 

Ellis,  James,  befriended  by  Lin- 
coln, 24. 

Emerson,  Ralph,  on  Lincoln  and 
the  law,  116. 

Ewing,  William  Lee  D.,  Lincoln's 
opponent  for  speaker  of  Illinois 
House,  357. 

Ferguson,  Benjamin,  eulogized  by 
Lincoln,  331. 

Fisher,  Archibald,  wrongly  re- 
ported murdered,  138. 

Fletcher,  Job,  Sr.,  one  of  the 
"Long  Nine,"  211. 

Floyd,  George  P.,  part  of  fee  re- 
turned to  him  by  Lincoln,  159- 
160,  349. 

Forquer,  George,  publicly  re- 
proached by  Lincoln,  242-244. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  his  "  political 
slaughter"  of  opponents,  354. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  trials  with  his 
partner,  328. 

Gentry,  Allen,  makes  trading  voy- 
age with  Lincoln,  14. 


Gentry,  James,  sends  Lincoln  on 
trading  voyage  to  New  Orleans, 
14;  commends  Lincoln,  15. 

Gentryville,  home  of  Lincolns, 
18. 

Gibson,  Justice  John  B.,  dictum 
on  legal  fees,  356. 

Gillespie,  Judge  Joseph,  anec- 
dote on  Lincoln,  69;  on  Lin- 
coln's simplicity,  177-178,  352; 
colleague  of  Lincoln  in  the 
House,  236-237;  letter  to  Hern- 
don,  340. 

Globe  Tavern,  first  home  of  Lin- 
coln and  his  wife,  175. 

Goodrich,  Grant,  endorses  Lin- 
coln's charge  against  the  Illi- 
nois Central  R.R.,  168;  offers 
Lincoln  partnership,  192. 

Goodwin,  Thomas,  describes 
Thomas  Lincoln,  323. 

Graham,  Mentor,  helps  Lincoln 
study  surveying,  26. 

Green,  Squire  Bowling,  complains 
of  Lincoln's  interference  as 
peacemaker,  34. 

Green,  J.  Parker,  bantered  by 
Lincoln  in  cross-examination, 
16. 

Greene,  William  G.,  buys  Rad- 
ford's  store,  22;  sells  store  to 
Lincoln  and  Berry,  22,  327; 
Lincoln's  debt  to,  24;  on  Lin- 
coln's sportsmanlike  conduct, 
31,  330. 

Gridley,  Asahel,  opposing  coun- 
sel in  Hoblit  vs.  Farmer,  70- 
71;  exit  through  church  win- 
dow with  Lincoln,  237. 

Gulliver,  Rev.  John  P.,  on  Lin- 
coln's search  for  facts,  339. 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  dictum  on  re- 
ceiving fees,  144. 

Hamlin,  Hannibal,  his  struggle 
with  debt  similar  to  Lincoln's, 


366 


INDEX 


328;  attitude  to  fees  similar  to 
Lincoln's,  335. 

Hammond,  Judge  Abram,  hood- 
winked by  Lincoln,  263-265. 

Hanks,  Dennis,  father  of  Mrs. 
Dowling,  3;  on  Thomas  Lin- 
coln's frequent  removals,  4;  on 
Lincoln's  habit  of  asking  ques- 
tions, 60;  on  Thomas  Lincoln's 
"way  with  women,"  325;  on 
Lincoln's  business  ability,  328. 

Hanks  Family,  considered 
"smart,"  3. 

Hanks,  John,  Lincoln's  cousin, 
accompanies  him  on  trading 
voyage,  17. 

Hanks,  Nancy,  mother  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  sweetness  and 
firmness  of  character,  3;  Abra- 
ham's earliest  recollections  of, 
6,  7;  hardships  and  death,  7, 
324;  influence  on  Abraham's 
character,  7. 

Hardin,  Gen.  John  J.,  Lincoln's 
opponent  for  congressional 
nomination,  267,  273;  "making 
a  slate,"  274;  turns  against 
Lincoln,  276;  fails  to  catch  Lin- 
coln in  his  trap,  360. 

Harding,  Jacob,  refuses  Lincoln 
space  in  his  editorial  columns, 

254- 

Harriott,  James,  presiding  justice 
in  Armstrong  case,  109. 

Harris,  Gibson  W.,  clerk  in  Lin- 
coln's office,  on  Lincoln's  atti- 
tude toward  clients,  50;  on  Lin- 
coln as  a  politician,  252,  277, 
278,  357;  on  Lincoln  as  a  law- 
yer, 343;  on  Lincoln's  attitude 
toward  fees,  349;  on  Lincoln's 
generosity,  185,  353. 

Harrison,  Quinn,  "  Peachy,"  mur- 
der case  of,  105-106. 

Hawley,  Isaac,  astonished  by 
small  fee  Lincoln  asks,  149. 


Henry  HI,  and  Cardinal  Duper- 
ron,  59. 

Henry,  Dr.  A.  G.,  on  Lincoln's 
treatment  of  Post  Office  funds, 
45-46. 

Henry,  John,  secures  Baker's  of- 
fice, 359. 

Henry,  Patrick,  compared  to  Lin- 
coln, 71;  evidence  that  he  kept 
accounts,  335;  uses  Valley 
Forge  hardships  as  appeal  for 
sympathy,  346. 

Herndon,  Archer  G.,  one  of  the 
"Long  Nine,"  211. 

Herndon,  James,  sells  interest  in 
general  store  to  Berry,  21. 

Herndon,  Rowan,  sells  interest  in 
general  store  to  Lincoln,  21 ;  be- 
lieves Lincoln  honest,  21,  327; 
Lincoln's  debt  to,  24. 

Herndon,  William  H.,  Lincoln's 
partner,  335 ;  anecdotes  on  Lin- 
coln and  law,  87-88,  124-126; 
associate  counsel  with  Lincoln, 
105;  anecdote  on  Lincoln  and 
money,  145,  166;  expostulates 
with  Lincoln  on  under-charges, 
162;  on  Lincoln's  indebtedness, 

329- 

Hicks,  Ratcliffe,  on  Lincoln  and 
the  Patterson  case,  339. 

Hill,  Samuel,  befriended  by  Lin- 
coln, 24. 

Hinton,  Col.  Richard  J.,  on  Lin- 
coln as  lawyer,  95-96,  342. 

Hoblit,  Hon.  James  T.,  on  Lin- 
coln and  the  law,  82-83. 

Hoblit  vs.  Farmer,  Lincoln's 
handling  of  case,  70. 

Hoffman,  David,  dictum  on  stat- 
ute of  limitations  and  infancy, 
346;  attitude  toward  fees,  351; 
refuses  to  take  bad  cases, 

337- 

Holt,Chief  Justice  William  Henry, 
on  fictitious  pleas,  342. 


INDEX 


367 


Illinois  Central  Railroad,  retains 
Lincoln,  166;  disallows  his 
claim  for  fees,  167;  sued  by  Lin- 
coln, 169;  its  recent  statement 
of  case,  170-171. 

Indiana  Statutes,  read  by  Lin- 
coln, 35,331- 

Irwin,  James  S.,  receives  letter 
from  Lincoln  regarding  f  ees,  1 65 . 

Jackson,  Andrew,  his  radical  dem- 
ocratic doctrines,  198. 

Jacksonism,  its  decline  in  popu- 
larity, 208. 

Jacksonville,  111.,  52. 

James,  Benjamin  F.,  360. 

Jayne,  Dr.  William,  on  Lincoln's 
generosity,  184,  353. 

Johnson,  Matilda,  wife  of  Dennis 
Hanks,  3. 

Johnston,  Daniel,  first  husband 
of  Sally  Bush,  7. 

Johnston,  John  D.,  Lincoln's  step- 
brother, accompanies  him  on 
trading  voyage,  17. 

Johnston,  Mrs.  Sarah  Bush,  mar- 
ries Thomas  Lincoln,  7 ;  charac- 
ter and  influence  on  Abraham, 
8-9- 

Jones,  William,  his  grocery  store 
at  New  Salem,  1 8. 

Joy,  James  F.,  retains  Lincoln  for 
Illinois  Central  R.R.,  166;  dis- 
allows Lincoln's  claim,  167; 
asks  Lincoln  to  act  as  arbitra- 
tor, 331. 

Judd,  Norman  B.,  attorney  for 
Chicago  and  Rock  Island  R.R. 
Co.,  retains  Lincoln,  97-98;  en- 
dorses Lincoln's  charge  against 
the  Illinois  Central  R.R.,  168. 

Judd,  Mrs.  Norman  B.,  on  Lin- 
coln as  a  lawyer,  343. 

Kentucky,  3. 

Kidd,  Captain  Thomas  W.   S., 


describes  Lincoln's  anger  in 
court,  347. 

Kingsbury,  Enoch,  his  case  re- 
fused by  Lincoln,  54-55. 

Knob-Creek,  Ky.,  early  home  of 
Lincoln,  4. 

Knox,  Joseph,  associate  of  Lin- 
coln in  Rock  Island  Bridge 
case,  97. 

Koerner,  Justice  Gustav,  on 
Lincoln's  fairness,  95;  recom- 
mends Lincoln  to  Atlantic  R.R. 
Co.,  145. 

Lamon,  Ward  Hill,  forced  by  Lin- 
coln to  return  fee,  159-160;  on 
Lincoln  and  the  Patterson  case, 

339- 

"Land-sharks,"  Lincoln's  aver- 
sion to,  135. 

Law,  relation  of  lawyer  to  client, 
58-60,  71-75;  sham  pleas,  88, 
342;  technicalities,  117-119; 
statute  of  limitations,  122-123, 
346;  legal  fees,  136-138,  144, 
166,  335,  349,  350. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  genealogy,  i; 
born  at  Nolin  Creek,  Ky.,  4; 
early  poverty,  4;  on  his  father's 
lack  of  "money  sense,"  5;  in- 
fluenced by  father's  honesty,  6; 
earliest  recollections  of  mother, 
6,  7;  "my  angel  mother,"  7,  9; 
influenced  by  stepmother,  9; 
frontier  life  and  hardships,  10; 
lack  of  schooling,  10;  ambition 
for  learning,  10;  borrows  books, 
II ;  damages  Crawford's  book, 
10;  writes  lampoons,  12;  emu- 
lates Weems's  Washington,  13, 
326;  sent  on  trading  voyage  to 
New  Orleans  by  Gentry,  14; 
experience  with  counterfeit 
money,  15, 16,  327;  commended 
by  Gentry,  15;  cross-examina- 
tion of  J.  Parker  Green,  16; 


368 


INDEX 


second  trading  voyage,  17;  ad- 
mired by  Denton  Offutt,  17, 18; 
hired  as  clerk  by  Offutt  at  New 
Salem,  18,  197;  lack  of  mercan- 
tile ability,  1 8,  23,  131,  133;  his 
honesty  attracts  attention,  20; 
in  Black  Hawk  War,  21;  fails 
for  election  to  state  legislature, 
21, 202;  buys  Rowan  Herndon's 
share  of  general  store,  21 ;  stat- 
ure, 21 ;  buys  Radford's  store 
from  Greene,  22 ;  buys  business 
of  Rutledge,  22 ;  sells  out  to  the 
Trents,  22 ;  charitable  to  mem- 
ory of  Berry,  22;  burden  of 
debts,  24,  225;  his  debts  com- 
pared to  Hamlin's,  328;  ap- 
pointed local  postmaster,  24, 
204, 355;  meager  living,  24;  sen- 
sitiveness to  honor,  25;  deputy 
surveyor,  26,133, 2°4»  206;  sued 
by  Van  Vergen  and  Watkins, 
26;  "the  national  debt,"  27,  38, 
42,  133,  223;  feats  of  strength, 
29;  wrestling  match,  29-31; 
sportsmanlike  conduct,  31 ;  bor- 
rows books  from  Justice  Pitcher, 
35;  attends  sessions  at  Boon- 
ville,  35;  desire  to  study  law, 
35~36»  38;  reads  Blackstone's 
commentaries,  37;  elected  to 
state  legislature,  37;  poverty, 
38;  uses  Major  Stuart's  library, 
39;  enters  law,  40;  journey  to 
Springfield,  41-42;  accepts 
Speed's  hospitality,  43;  partner 
of  Stuart,  44;  treatment  of  the 
money  of  others,  45-47;  atti- 
tude toward  clients,  49-50,  66- 
70,  73-76;  the  Matheney  case, 
50;  attitude  toward  fraudulent 
cases,  54-60;  partnership  with 
Logan,  55;  refuses  to  take  Mat- 
teson  case,  56,  338;  "law  hon- 
esty," 56-57;  conscience  in  law, 
56-59,  77-78;  habit  of  asking 


questions,  60,  61;  intellectual 
modesty,  61-63;  admiration 
for  Stanton,  62 ;  logical  reason- 
ing powers,  63;  freedom  from 
guile,  65;  attitude  when  sus^ 
pects  client's  guilt  during  trial, 
66-70,  340;  Patterson  murder 
trial,  67,  339;  Hoblit  vs.  Farm- 
er, 70-71;  skill  as  an  advocate, 
79-80,  97-100,  341,  342;  his 
methods  in  court,  80-83,  101, 
125;  treatment  of  witnesses, 
84-86;  experience  with  sham 
pleas,  88;  sits  for  Judge  Davis, 
89,  90;  qualifications  as  judge, 
92-93;  Rock  Island  Bridge 
case,  96-98;  his  colleagues' 
jealousy,  104;  the  Quinn  Har- 
rison murder  case,  105-107; 
methods  of  meeting  personal  at- 
tacks, 107-108;  "Duff  Arm- 
strong case,"  108-1 1 1 , 344, 355 ; 
false  reflections  on  his  charac- 
ter, 108, 111-115,  215,  345; the 
almanac  episode,  1 10-1 1 1 ;  atti- 
tude toward  slurs  on  his  char- 
acter, 114-115;  attitude  toward 
technicalities  in  law,  117-118; 
his  wit,  1 19;  dishonest  litigants, 
120-122;  statute  of  limitations, 
122-123,  346;  love  of  justice, 
127;  attitude  toward  money, 
130-135,  173;  earns  his  first 
money,  132,  347;  aversion  to 
land-grabbers,  133-135;  fee  in 
Armstrong  case,  136;  the 
Trailor  case,  137-138;  gener- 
osity to  Trailor  brothers,  139; 
the  "shirt  sleeve  court,"  140; 
generosity  to  Linder,  141-142, 
348;  represents  Atlantic  R.R. 
Co.  in  suit,  144-145;  proneness 
to  underrate  his  services,  147, 
148;  duns  Douglas  for  money, 
148,  149;  charges  Daniel  Web- 
ster absurdly  small  fee,  151; 


INDEX 


369 


Dungee  slander  suit,  152-155; 
Chiniquy  case,  155;  generosity 
to  Chiniquy,  158;  returns  part 
of  fee  to  Floyd,  159-160;  forces 
Lamon  to  return  part  of  fee, 
1 60;  rebuked  by  Davis  for  un- 
dercharging, 161;  arraigned  at 
mock  trfal,  162;  writes  to  Invin 
about  fees,  169;  does  not  spec- 
ulate, 172;  marries  Mary  Todd, 
173,  267;  at  the  Globe  Tavern, 
175;  his  simplicity,  176,  183, 
352 ;  makes  unfavorable  first  im- 
pression, 178,  1 80,  182;  lack  of 
taste  in  dress,  179;  his  appear- 
ance, 180-182 ;  demands  on  him 
as  married  man,  183;  his  gener- 
osity, 183-185,  353;  his  wife's 
trials,  185-188;  treatment  of 
his  father,  190-191,  353;  refuses 
partnership  with  Goodrich,  192; 
indifference  to  wealth,  193; 
first  entrance  into  politics,  195, 
199;  his  ambition,  197, 260, 266; 
admires  Clay,  200;  analysis  of 
results  of  his  first  campaign, 
203,  355,  356;  political  sincer- 
ity, 207,  233,  238,  354;  elected 
to  state  legislature,  208;  ap- 
pointed to  committee  on  ac- 
counts and  expenditures,  209; 
attracts  notice  as  politician, 
210;  reflected,  210;  leader  of 
the  "Long  Nine,"  21 1;  cam- 
paign to  transfer  capital  from 
Vandalia  to  Springfield,  212- 
219;  "log-rolling,"  213-215, 
216, 218, 239;  emulates  De  Witt 
Clinton,  218;  befriended  by 
Wilson,  224;  borrows  money 
from  Smoot,  225;  takes  up  fight 
against  usury,  227;  secures  law 
limiting  rates  of  interest,  230; 
handling  of  financial  troubles  of 
state,  232-236;  his  exit  through 
church  window,  237;  his  part 


in  debate  on  "Subtreasuries," 
240,  241 ;  experience  with  politi- 
cal graft,  242 ;  retort  to  Forquer, 
242-243 ;  his  treatment  of  office- 
seekers,  245-246 ;  elected  Speak- 
er of  Illinois  House,  247;  his 
personality,  247;  his  qualities  as 
a  politician,  248-250,  252,  256, 
258 ;  his  methods  of  appeal  to  the 
people,  253,  254;  the  Harrison 
campaign,  254;  his  system  of 
political  organization,  255;  his 
aggressiveness,  257;  his  mod- 
esty, 259,  261 ;  readiness  to  as- 
sist beginners,  262;  campaign 
for  Congress,  267;  helps  Schurz, 
262;  his  candor,  269;  member 
of  delegation,  270;  letter  to 
Morris,  271;  at  the  convention, 
272;  "making  a  slate,"  274;  dis- 
solution of  partnership  with 
Logan,  275;  turned  against  by 
Hardin,  276;  his  candidacy  for 
Congress,  277,  279;  charged 
with  impiety,  279,  280;  elected 
to  Congress,  281,282  ;  arbitrator 
of  disputes,  28,  32-35,  48-49, 
52-53,  33i;  his  honesty,  I,  9, 
18,  20,  28,  32,  45-46,  63-65, 
85-86, 129, 245;  attitude  toward 
legal  fees,  136,  139,  141,  142, 
147,  150,  152,  158-160,  163, 
165,  166,  171,  349,  350,  351; 
attitude  toward  fees  similar  to 
Hamlin's,  335;  sells  "dogskin" 
gloves  to  Ross,  328;  letter  to 
Spears,  329;  on  Surveyor-Gen- 
eral Beale,  330;  on  his  prowess 
as  wrestler,  330;  eulogizes  Fer- 
guson, 331;  date  of  his  admis- 
sion to  bar,  333,  334;  evidence 
that  he  kept  accounts,  335; 
did  not  win  every  case  he 
should  have  won,  341;  com- 
pared to  Horace  Binney,  342; 
habit  of  waiting  on  himself, 


37° 


INDEX 


351;  habit  of  carrying  docu- 
ments under  his  hat,  205,  355; 
proposes  resolution  for  bill 
against  fraudulent  voting,  358; 
his  proposed  duel  with  Shields, 
268,  359;  avoids  traps  set  by 
Hardin,  360. 

anecdotes  about  Lincoln,  13, 
16,  19,  25,  30-31,  36,  42,  45,  47, 
64,  65, 92-93, 178, 182,  261,  272, 

357,  359- 

anecdotes  about  Lincoln  and 
the  law,  49-51,  55,  57,  66-67, 
68-69,  75-76,  77-78, 80-83,  89- 
91,  95,  98,  102,  103,  116,  118- 
119, 120-121, 124-126,127-128, 
338. 

anecdotes  about  Lincoln  and 
money,  131-132,  137-141,  H3, 
145-147,  148-151,  154,  158- 
160, 164, 166, 172, 187, 189, 225, 

351- 

anecdotes  about  Lincoln  and 
politics,  206,214,219-221,  222- 
223,  226,  237,  242-244,  246, 
254,  258,  269-270. 

anecdotes   by  Lincoln,  5-6, 

59-60,  131-132,  229. 

Lincoln,  Edward  Baker,  second 

son  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  351; 

named  for  Edward  D.  Baker, 

359- 

Lincoln,  Josiah,  uncle  of  Abra- 
ham, his  probity,  2,  323. 

Lincoln,  Matilda,  Abraham's 
stepsister,  axe  anecdote,  13. 

Lincoln,  Mordecai,  uncle  of  Abra- 
ham, his  probity,  2,  323. 

Lincoln,  Robert  Todd,  oldest  son 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  351. 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  father  of  Abra- 
ham, regarded  as  honest,  2,  6; 
one  source  of  Abraham's  hon- 
esty, 3 ;  frequent  removal  of  res- 
idence, 4,  324;  lack  of  success, 
4;  5,  hospitality,  5;  lack  of 


"money  sense,"  5;  influence  on 
Abraham's  character,  6;  mar- 
ries Mrs.  Johnston,  7,  324. 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  fourth  son  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  351. 

Lincoln,  William  Wallace,  third 
son  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  351. 

Lincoln,  111.,  82. 

Linder,  Gen.  Usher  F.,  experi- 
ences Lincoln's  generosity,  141- 
142;  on  Lincoln's  family,  323; 
letter  from  Lincoln,  348. 

Little,  S.,  collects  money  on  bill 
guaranteed  by  Lincoln,  184. 

Littlefield,  Gen.  John  H.,  on 
Lincoln's  refusal  to  take  bad 
cases,  57,  338. 

Little  Pigeon  Creek,  home  of 
Lincolns,  7. 

Logan,  Milton,  foreman  of  jury  in 
Armstrong  case,  testifies  to  au- 
thenticity of  almanac,  114. 

Logan,  Judge  Stephen  T.,  Lin- 
coln's partner,  55,  105,  335;  in 
Trailer  case,  137;  dissolution 
of  partnership  with  Lincoln, 
275;  on  Lincoln's  popularity, 
203,  355- 

"Log-rolling,"  Lincoln's  experi- 
ence with,  213,  215-216,  218. 

"Long  Nine,  The,"  nickname  of 
Sangamon  representatives,  211; 
campaign  to  transfer  state 
capital  to  Springfield,  212-215; 
"Log- Rolling,"  215,  216. 

Loop,  James  L.,  associated  with 
Lincoln,  340. 

Lord,  James  J.,  anecdote  on  Lin- 
coln's refusal  of  bad  cases,  57, 
338. 

Lord,  John  P.,  describes  Jeremiah 
Mason,  336. 

McCIernand,  John  A.,  recom- 
mended by  Lincoln,  53;  in 
Harrison  case,  105;  secures  pas- 


INDEX 


sage  of  bill  against  fraudulent 
voting,  358. 

McCormick,  Andrew,  one  of  the 
"Long  Nine,"  211. 

McCormick  Reaper  Suit,  Stan- 
ton's  handling  of  the  case,  62. 

McHenry,  Henry,  experience  with 
Lincoln  as  lawyer,  54;  on  Lin- 
coln as  surveyor,  330;  on  Lin- 
coln's close  application,  332. 

McLean,  John,  presiding  judge  in 
Rock  Island  Bridge  case,  96. 

McNeely,  William,  one  of 
"Clary's  Grove  boys,"  139;  on 
Lincoln's  attitude  toward  right 
and  wrong,  327. 

McWilliams,  Amzi,  prosecuting 
attorney  in  Harrison  case,  105. 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice  John,  re- 
semblances to  Lincoln,  352. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  tries  to  pre- 
vent litigation,  336. 

Matheney,  Charles,  Lincoln  and 
the  Matheney  case,  50. 

Matheney,  James,  experiences 
Lincoln's  candor,  359. 

Matteson,  Governor  Joel  A., 
Lincoln  and  Logan  refuse  to 
defend,  55-56,  338. 

Mendonsa,  John  F.,  anecdote 
about  Lincoln  and  money,  185- 

187,  353- 

Minier  George  W.,  describes 
Lincoln's  refusal  to  plead  ex- 
emption on  grounds  of  infancy, 
346. 

Moore,  Clifton  H.,  opposing 
counsel  to  Lincoln  in  Dungee 
case,  153. 

Moore,  Jonathan,  brother  of  Cap- 
tain William  Moore,  31. 

Moore,  Risdon  M.,  meets  Lin- 
coln, 330. 

Moore,  William,  commander  of 
company  from  St.  Clair  County 
in  Black  Hawk  War,  30. 


Morris,  Martin  M.,  supporter  of 
Lincoln  in  convention,  271, 
273,  274. 

Nance,  George  W.,  on  Lincoln's 
charge  for  services,  150,  349. 

"National  Debt,"  Lincoln's  bur- 
den of  debt,  27,  38,  42, 133,  223. 

Neale,  Thomas  M.,  successor  of 
John  Calhoun,  28. 

Nelson,  Thomas  H.,  anecdote 
about  Lincoln,  263;  hood- 
winked by  Lincoln,  264-265; 
sequel  to  his  adventure  with 
Lincoln,  358. 

New  Orleans,  La.,  5,  6;  trading 
voyage  to,  14. 

New  Salem,  327,  332,  355;  Lin- 
coln clerk  in  Off  utt's  store  at,  1 8. 

Nolin  Creek,  Ky.,  birthplace  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  4. 

Norris,  James  A.,  convicted  of 
manslaughter,  108. 

O  'Conor,  Charles,  subordinates 
money-making  to  professional 
propriety,  350. 

Offutt,  Denton,  admiration  for 
Lincoln,  17,  18;  sends  Lincoln 
on  trading  voyage,  17;  hires 
Lincoln  as  clerk  at  New  Salem, 
18;  business  fails  to  prosper, 

2O-2I. 

Orr,  Albert  B.,  tells  of  Lincoln's 

decision  to  enter  law,  332. 
Osgood,  Uri,  attorney  for  Chini- 

quy,  155- 

Paddock,  John  W.,  attorney  for 
Chiniquy,  155. 

Palmer,  John  M.,  in  Harrison 
case,  105. 

Parks,  Judge  Samuel  C.,  on  Lin- 
coln's attitude  toward  law,  55; 
on  Lincoln  as  a  politician,  238. 

Patterson  murder  trial,  67,  339. 


372 


INDEX 


Pickering,  Governor  William,  on 
Lincoln's  mother  and  step- 
mother, 9. 

Pinkney,  William,  conduct  simi- 
lar to  Lincoln's,  77-78. 

Pirtle,  Henry  on  the  character 
of  Lincoln's  uncles,  323. 

Pitcher,  Justice  John,  lends  Lin- 
coln law  books,  35;  admiration 
for  Lincoln,  36. 

Primm,  James,  experiences  Lin- 
coln's generosity,  353. 

Prince,  Ezra  Morton,  on  Lincoln 
as  a  lawyer,  104. 

Purple,  Norman  H.,  endorses  Lin- 
coln's charge  against  Illinois 
Central  R.R.,  168. 

Radford,  Reuben,  store  wrecked 
by  "Clary's  Grove  boys,"  22; 
sells  store  to  Greene,  22;  Lin- 
coln's debt  to,  24. 

Rankin,  Henry  B.,  describes  route 
Lincoln  took  from  Springfield 
to  New  Salem,  332. 

Republican  Party,  Lincoln  fails 
for  election  to  state  Legisla- 
ture in,  21. 

Reynolds,  Gov.  John,  on  Lincoln 
as  a  politician,  247. 

Rice,  Judge  E.  J.,  prejudiced  at 
Harrison  trial,  127. 

Rice,  Henry,  experience  with 
Lincoln  as  a  lawyer,  52;  on 
Lincoln's  handling  of  bank- 
ruptcy case,  337. 

Rickel,  Henry,  on  Lincoln  and 
money,  151-152,  349. 

Rock  Island  Bridge  Case,  Lin- 
coln's efforts  in,  96-98. 

Rockport,  Ind.,  home  of  Justice 
John  Pitcher,  35. 

Roper,  Joseph  D.,  anecdote  about 
Lincoln,  357. 

Rosette,  John  E.,  receives  letter 
from  Lincoln,  188. 


Ross,  Harvey  L.,  consults  Lin- 
coln in  land  case,  139;  buys 
"dogskin"  gloves,  of  Lincoln, 
328. 

Ross,  Ossian  M.,  postmaster  at 
Havana,  111.,  139. 

Ruggles,  James  M.,  anecdote 
about  Lincoln,  272,  359. 

Rutledge,  James,  sells  business 
to  Lincoln  and  Berry,  22;  Lin- 
coln's debt  to,  24. 

Sadorus,  111.,  75. 

Schurz,  Carl,  on  Lincoln's  appear- 
ance, 1 80;  first  interview  with 
Lincoln,  262. 

Shaw,  J.  Henry,  anecdote  on 
Lincoln  and  law,  68. 

Shields,  James,  his  proposed 
duel  with  Lincoln,  268,  359. 

"Shirt  sleeve  court,"  held  by 
Judge  Thomas,  140-141. 

Short,  James,  takes  place  of  Van 
Bergen  as  Lincoln's  creditor, 

329- 

Simmons,  Pollard,  tenders  Lin- 
coln appointment  as  deputy 
surveyor,  206-207. 

Smoot,  Coleman,  lends  Lincoln 
money,  225,  356. 

Somers,  James  W.,  on  Lincoln's 
appearance,  179. 

Spears,  George,  reprimanded  by 
Lincoln  for  demanding  receipt, 

329. 

Speed,  Joshua  F.,  shares  his  room 
with  Lincoln,  43;  on  Lincoln's 
attitude  toward  his  election  to 
Congress,  360. 

Spencer,  Joe,  sued  by  Dungee 
for  slander,  152-155. 

Spink,  Peter,  sues  Father  Chini- 
quy  for  slander,  155. 

Springfield,  111.,  37,  39,  41-42; 
Lincoln's  home,  42;  made  capi- 
tal, 219;  Lincoln's  route  from 


INDEX 


373 


Springfield  to  New  Salem, 
332. 

Stanton,  Edward  M.,  Lincoln's 
admiration  for,  62 ;  his  handling 
of  the  McCormick  Reaper  suit, 
62. 

Starr,  Norton,  and  McRoberts, 
attorneys  for  Spink  in  Chiniquy 
case,  155. 

Stature,  Lincoln's  stalwartness, 
21. 

Statute  of  Limitations,  Lincoln's 
attitude  toward,  122-123. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  refuses 
to  take  bad  cases,  338. 

Stevens,  Frank  E.,  investigates 
the  "Black  Hawk"  wrestling 
match,  29,  330. 

Stone,  Daniel,  one  of  the  "Long 
Nine,"  211. 

Stuart,  Maj.  John  T.,  attorney  at 
Springfield,  37;  fellow-candi- 
date of  Lincoln,  37;  helps  Lin- 
coln study  law,  39;  partner  of 
Lincoln,  44,  181,  335. 

Sulpicius,  Servius,  believes  in  tem- 
pering the  severity  of  law,  336. 

Swett,  Leonard,  on  Lincoln  as  ar- 
bitrator, 49;  on  Lincoln's  hon- 
esty, 64-65 ;  on  Lincoln  and  the 
law,  80-8 1,  98;  on  Lincoln's 
simplicity,  352. 

Thomas,  Judge  Jesse  B.,  holds 
"shirt  sleeve  court,"  140-141. 

Thompson,  Lorenzo  Dow,  beats 
Lincoln  at  wrestling,  30. 

Thornton,  Anthony,  on  Lincoln 
as  an  advocate,  341. 

Todd,  Mary,  Lincoln's  wife,  174, 
267;  her  trials  with  money- 
matters,  185,  1 88. 

Toombs,  Robert,  refuses  to  take 
bad  cases,  338. 

Trailer  brothers,  defended  on 
murder  charge  by  Lincoln,  138. 


Treat,  Judge  Samuel  H.,  presides 
in  Hoblit  vs.  Farmer  case,  70; 
121 ;  on  Lincoln's  straightfor- 
wardness as  an  advocate,  340. 

Tremont,  HI.,  120. 

Trent,  Alexander  and  William, 
buy  out  Lincoln  and  Berry  on 
notes  and  abscond,  23. 

Turnham,  David,  lends  copy  of 
Indiana  Statutes  to  Lincoln, 
331. 

Usury,  prevalence,  227;  Lincoln 
takes  up  fight  against,  228; 
law  limiting  rates  of  interest, 
230. 

Van  Bergen,  obtains  judgment 
against  Lincoln  on  note,  26. 

Van  Cleave,  James  R.  B.,  de- 
scribes route  Lincoln  took  from 
Springfield  to  New  Salem,  332. 

Vandalia,  111.,  42;  state  capital 
transferred  to  Springfield,  219. 

Volk,  Leonard  W.,  describes  Lin- 
coln's habit  of  waiting  on  him- 
self, 351. 

Warburton,  George,  one  of  par- 
ties in  horse-race,  32. 

Warden,  Charles  E.,  tells  of  Lin- 
coln's decision  to  enter  law, 
332. 

Washington,  George,  punctilious 
honesty  compared  to  Lincoln's, 
19;  Weems's  Life  of,  12. 

Watkins,  Thomas,  sues  Lincoln 
for  debt,  26. 

Webster,  Daniel,  impressed  with 
Lincoln's  moderation  in  fees, 
150-151;  resemblances  to  Lin- 
coln, 224;  attitude  toward 
money,  225;  secures  acquittal 
of  forger  by  his  admissions,  343 ; 

Weems,  Mason  L.,  author  of 
"Life  of  Washington,"  326. 


374 


INDEX 


Weems's  "  Life  of  Washington," 
influence  on  Lincoln,  12,  326. 

Weik,  Jesse  W.,  on  date  of  Lin- 
coln's admission  to  the  bar,  333 ; 
anecdote  on  Lincoln  and  money, 

351- 

Weldon,  Lawrence,  opposing 
counsel  to  Lincoln  in  Dungee 
case,  153;  on  Lincoln's  moder- 
ate fees,  154-155;  on  Lincoln's 
methods  of  meeting  personal 
attacks,  344. 

Whig  Party,  Lincoln  elected  to 
State  Legislature  on,  37  ;  Henry 
Clay  its  hero,  201. 

White,  Horace,  on  Lincoln  as  a 
politician,  256;  on  counterfeit 
money,  326. 


Whitney,  Henry  C.,  on  Lincoln's 
honesty,  65,  86,  87;  on  Lincoln 
and  the  law,  75-76;  on  Lincoln 
and  money,  164;  contradicts 
Lamon  on  Patterson  case,  339; 
on  Lincoln's  simplicity,  352. 

Williams,  Archibald,  endorses 
Lincoln's  charge  against  the  Il- 
linois Central  R.R.,  168. 

Wilson,  Robert  L.,  one  of  the 
"Long  Nine,"  211;  befriends 
Lincoln,  224. 

Winters,  William  H.,  on  O'Con- 
or's  professional  propriety, 
350. 

Wythe,  George,  method  of  guard- 
ing against  deception  of  clients, 
65-66. 


(Cfce  fttocrsitiE  presg 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


